Scottish artist’s work on racism, slavery and climate change to been seen on advertising billboards across Edinburgh

Alberta Whittle’s messages will go on display across 13 sites

Work by a Barbadian-Scottish artist who explores the impact of racism, colonialism, slavery and climate change is to go on display in prominent public places around Edinburgh as part of a UK-wide street art project.

The "outdoor exhibition" devoted to the work of Alberta Whittle, who has represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale, will see advertising boards transformed at 13 sites across the city next month.

A series of messages from the artist will be on display at locations including the Bridges, Calton Road, Easter Road, Portobello and Leith's Shore area from December 11-17.

Work by the artist Alberta Whittle will be going on display on billboards across Edinburgh next month.

The messages include "Invest in Love," "Fill Your Heart With Hope," "Step Lightly," "Raise the Alarm” and “Create Dangerously”.

The billboard will be based on watercolours created by Whittle for the biggest exhibition of her work to date, which is running at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh until January.

Among the issues she explores are the violence of colonialism, the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade in enslaved people, the impact of the climate crisis and “Scotland’s complicity in the structures of white supremacy”.

The National Galleries of Scotland has collaborated with creative billboard specialists Buildhollywood to develop the outdoor exhibition, which will also use sites at London Road, Brunswick Road, Lindsay Road, Fountainbridge, Market Street and Slateford Road.

Work by the artist Alberta Whittle will be going on display on billboards across Edinburgh next month.

Project curator Zarina Rossheart said: “The ‘All About Love’ project was conceived as an invitation for artists and audiences to come together in communion and to look at love as a radical tool for resistance while living in the violent world and society collectively overtaken by pain and grief.

"Alberta Whittle has consistently encouraged us to ‘Invest in Love’, one of the tender and inspiring messages that will appear on the billboards across Edinburgh this December.”

Launching her exhibition earlier this year, Whittle said: “It is about the hope we can nurture within ourselves, but also the hope that we can have difficult conversations about the harm caused by colonialism, the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, and the climate crisis.

“It presents an opportunity for self-reflection, and to think about the types of power we hold in the world and how we can use it compassionately. Living in the catastrophe of racial and cultural violence, we need to hold onto love with all our hearts.”