Abstract
This paper presents a public commission by artist Martin Creed through an experimental essay form that replicates the structural features of the artwork itself. Creed’s work is entitled Work No. 1059 (Creed has been numbering his artworks sequentially since 1986) and consists of a flight of 104 steps that join two streets in Edinburgh, part of a refurbishment project by Edinburgh City Council and Edinburgh World Heritage. In this essay “walks” from the lowest point on Market Street to the uppermost level on North Bridge, naming as it goes each of the different marble steps sourced from twenty-seven countries. The steps had previously fallen into disuse, and were eventually closed. In 2011, they were reopened as an artwork and a public right of way: The Scotsman Steps. They are encased within an octagonal, turreted stone tower, originally part of The Scotsman Newspaper building. The whole forms part of a Category A-listed structure built in 1899 by architects James Dunn and James Finlay. Commissioning Creed’s Work No. 1059 was at the instigation of The Fruitmarket Gallery, which lies near the bottom entrance to the steps.
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