Callum Innes: The Regent Bridge - Edinburgh Festival Guide

Celebrated internationally for his abstract paintings, Edinburgh based artist Callum Innes works for the very first time with light, in a simple intervention which floods a dark tunnel on Calton Road with colour to reveal the magnificent architecture of the Regent Bridge above.

The bridge was designed in 1814 by Archibald Elliot to create an entrance to Edinburgh where the London Road entered the New Town. It was constructed under the direction of Robert Stevenson and completed in 1819, thus solving the long-standing problem of entering the city through narrow and inconvenient medieval streets. Although still a major thoroughfare between the Old and New Towns, centuries of dirt and a lack of light make the bridge feel more of a dark tunnel than a celebratory arch.

Working with architect and lighting artist Gavin Fraser, of FOTO-MA Lighting Architects, Innes has evolved a scheme that transforms the flat sides of the lower arch at street level into an illuminated plinth of floating colour. The work follows a series of set rules to create a structured and yet deliberately random order of coloured light, revealing and lifting the giant curve of the arch above. The Regent Bridge is commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and Ingleby Gallery.

Installed at the base of the Regent Bridge on Calton Road, under Waterloo Place