In this latest series of collages, Ed Kluz explores the unique typography and architecture of Edinburgh’s New Town.

Built during the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a counterpart to the overcrowded and squalid living conditions of the medieval city which clustered around the castle, the New Town expressed the highest values of the Enlightenment age: an ordered grid system of streets and public squares punctuated by grand circuses and crescents emulating the cities of classical antiquity. The gracious and palatial new residences which lined the streets were to house a burgeoning upper class society in an architectural splendour only seen in the major European cities of the time.

"However international in its appearance, the New Town is unmistakably Scottish in feel. The canyon-like streets of grey stone wind up steeply inclined hills revealing and concealing dynamic cityscapes and frame glimpsed views of the surrounding hills. It is almost as though the architecture of the New Town somehow echoes and augments the monumental crags and hills which give the city its unique rugged topography."

Ed Kluz is an artist, illustrator and printmaker. His work explores contemporary perceptions of the past through the reimagining of historic landscapes, buildings and objects. The spirit of early Romanticism, the Picturesque movement and antiquarian topographical engravings underpin his approach to image making. He has a particular interest in the eccentric, uncanny and overlooked – follies, lost country houses and ruins provide a constant source of inspiration.