Freshly washed Creed

Martin Creed Work no: 1059, 2011

A public sculpture, commissioned for the historic Scotsman Steps by the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. 104 steps lead down from the Scotsman Hotel on North Bridge down to Waverley Station and the Fruitmarket Gallery on Market Street. Each stair is clad with a different colour of marble. More information here. 

Walking down the steps today, on a hectic pre-Christmas shopping day, the stairs had just been freshly washed by the council, and the relative quiet and seclusion of the stairwell seemed ironically to amplify the hubbub around the station and streets outside it.