Borne by the Walls

Borne by the Walls is a portrait series that documents people with a connection to the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and reflects on the mark that the hospital left in the minds, bodies and life stories of people in Edinburgh and beyond. In the series, photographer Gintare Kulyte captures diverse stories of former members of hospital staff, former patients of the hospital, and people whose lives were otherwise connected to the hospital’s activity. Each photograph is taken in a location of the former hospital that is significant or symbolic to each person’s story. Reflecting the scale of the former hospital site and its connections to the wider city, the portrait locations extend beyond the walls of this building into the wider Quartermile area and the Old Town. The diversity of the stories is reflected in the variety of photographic approaches seen throughout the series. From collages to composite pictures to portraits in more conventional forms, each approach is tailored to best-reflect the story of the person it depicts.

In the exhibition, the photographs are closely connected to the poems and prose pieces written by the people captured in the photographs. These allow us to delve deeper into each individual story, and the meanings, emotions and experiences prompted by it. The literary pieces interweave with the photographs in the form of key words and phrases, chosen and written by the portrait participants themselves. The handwritten nature of these adds a diary-like quality to the pieces, aiming to draw the viewer ever closer to each person’s story.

Borne by the Walls is part of Recycling a Hospital, an interdisciplinary community arts project that honours the memories of the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh through woodworking, stone carving and poetry. This exhibition features portraits of people who contributed to the project with their poems, as well as the poems of those who did not wish to be photographed. The series is also closely connected to Edinburgh International Book Festival’s project Words from the Wards. Many of the authors featured in this exhibition submitted their stories to this project