I created artwork for Edinburgh Summerhall – then they censored it
If their stated objective is 'to provide a nurturing safe space for artistic experimentation' they certainly left me out in the cold.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Fringe venue under fire for censoring artist's work
As an artist/activist my work is known for its humanitarian stance, politically charged and purposefully provocative, engaging with subjects that are often complex and intractable.
My protest walls were first commissioned in 2017 by Robert McDowell, the visionary creative force and founder of Summerhall who invited me to create giant pastel murals in one of its main thoroughfares originally as part of the Fringe Festival. It became, at his insistence, a permanent fixture.
Initially inspired by Carole Cadwalladr's ground breaking investigative journalism focussing on her Observer piece "The Great British Brexit Robbery – How our democracy was Hijacked", I undertook my own research into big data and how it was being used to fine tune and influence political campaigns in favour of far-right populist movements
Using imagery of screaming masks, representing protesting masses with words, slogans and names, the protest walls addressed the world's rude awakening to the surprise electoral success of both Trump and Brexit. One section dedicated to Trump I titled 'Pink Pussy Protest', a reference to his vulgar boast, adjacent to a separate section on Brexit.
Jumping ahead
Fast forward to 2025 in a world that has grown distinctly dark under the second coming of an emboldened Trump. By mutual consent the new regime at Summerhall Arts agreed that the protest walls were more apposite than ever and that I should alter and update them accordingly in time for the Fringe festival.
For sure I took a risk emblazoning a Nazi swastika symbol set within a red stop sign motif. Yes its shocking, its disgusting, grotesque – its a terrifying reminder that Nazism in no matter what shape or guise must never be tolerated and yet perversely the word Nazi is becoming all too pervasive. It surfaces in daily news items, it's bandied about on social media platforms, it's being held on placards by protesters on streets across the globe, not in celebration, but instead in a bleak reference that Nazism is becoming a terrifying reality.
While I was working on updating the mural, Sam Gough suddenly appeared, finger outstretched towards the offending symbol, and commanded 'You can't have that'.
'Why?' I asked incredulously. His response was reasonable. "Because it still hurts and offends people," he said.
My intention was not to hurt but to make an impact, for this overloaded symbol of unadulterated evil to act as a warning of where we are heading, to stir our consciousness and wake us up. I agreed I would 'tone it down', but without further discussion I did not agree to remove it. I assumed that something that was clearly so important would be discussed further, and seen in context.
But he didn't give me that opportunity. Completed on the Saturday night, somehow over Sunday the walls had caused offence to both staff and public. Clearly there was no 'safe room' in place for members of staff on this occasion, so a member of staff apparently felt obliged to take a sponge to eradicate not only the offending symbol but oddly other anti-Nazi references as well.
A photo shows several parts of the art having been scrubbed out (Image: Jane Frere)
Why I'm speaking up
An artist's work on display in a public venue should be sacrosanct. What gallery would touch a work without discussion and consent from its creator? Not just censorship, it felt like my work had been vandalised.
Both walls were a work in progress, but without the impact of what I now call the 'N' word, I still wanted to ensure maximum impact through words and references taken across all media reflecting the world we are facing. Over the following weeks multiple emails to the Summerhall Arts team followed. No matter what ideas or vocabularies I forwarded none were approved of.
READ MORE: Police Scotland respond to viral 'plasticine' T-shirt detention video
Paradoxically when I first saw the redacted blank spaces it sparked an idea, what if all the placards went dark? Perhaps there are no words for this dystopic reality of Musk's DOGE, Netanyahu's genocidal invoking of the Amalek, TikTok images of soldiers revelling in satanic revenge, Putin's war, the rise of empowered Neo-Nazism, migration detention centres guarded by hungry alligators, not to mention sci-fi fears of hostile super AI dominating homo sapiens – all against an apocalyptic backdrop of catastrophic climate and nature breakdown.
Ultimately redacted words leaving a blank space reflect something that is affecting everyone – we are all losing our freedom of speech, we are all little by little being silenced.
Jane Frere is a Scottish artist, living in the Highlands. She has been involved in the Edinburgh arts scene for more than 30 years. Her most recent exhibited work, a collaborative creation of a banner bearing the names of victims in Gaza was hung in the Palestine Museum US show alongside the Venice Biennale last year.
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