Artist Gayle Chong Kwan interrogates the history of the scientific canon in a major new exhibition commissioned by Edinburgh Science Festival
Commissioned by Edinburgh Science Festival, Gayle Chong Kwan has created an art installation that brings together contemporary sculpture and reflections on science's cultural legacy.
Article Source: Edinburgh Science Festival
Last Updated: 2 March 2026 13:35
Image Credir: Alex Howarth
The Great Instauration by British artist Gayle Chong Kwan takes over the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland for the duration of the Edinburgh Science Festival.
Commissioned by Edinburgh Science Festival, Gayle Chong Kwan has created an art installation that brings together contemporary sculpture and reflections on science’s cultural legacy.
Chong Kwan explored the theme rethinking scientific histories through research into scientific artefacts and archives across eight major collections and through speaking with communities. These included: National Museums Scotland, Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Collection at the Science Museum, Science Museum Collection Centre in Swindon, Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, Surgeons Hall Museum Edinburgh, and community gardens in Edinburgh.
Chong Kwan has explored the history of the scientific canon and the Scientific Enlightenment in Scotland, rethinking science’s stories and reframing who and what gets to be remembered. The artwork focusses in on Scotland’s complex historical connections with slavery, enslaved people, plant and botanical origins of medicine, the University of Edinburgh, medical infirmaries, the advent of geology, and scientific instruments.
Installed in the Grand Gallery, The Great Instauration is an underground, upside-down world filled with forms hanging from railings and columns. Large-scale sculptures of scientific instruments are transformed into fantastical roots, hanging fabrics of the geological strata of Edinburgh with archival and painted images, and steel plinths inscribed with lesser-known histories fill the space. Chong Kwan connects exploitative and extractive histories, the scientific gaze, and roots, upturning the stories that shape our understanding of scientific knowledge and discovery.
Chong Kwan’s research highlighted how we tend to think of science, the scientific method, scientific instruments, and the Scientific Enlightenment as bringing understanding and clarity – light to see things we did not understand.
Dr Gayle Chong Kwan, Artist, said: “I am truly excited to present ‘The Great Instauration’, an installation in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland that explores science as a culturally embedded process shaped by social history, power, and omission. I have been inspired by objects and narratives across multiple collections and museums, the history of the scientific canon, and the Scientific Enlightenment. My research included scientific instruments, the botanical origins of medicine, and Scotland’s historical connections with slavery. I was interested in how we tend to think of the scientific method, scientific instruments, and the Scientific Enlightenment as bringing understanding. I have explored histories connected with the theodolite, microscope, thermometer, clock, chronometer, and the telescope.
The resulting three-dimensional, surreal sculptural and printed works act as forms of resistance. Developed through archival collage and painting, I was inspired by forms from microscopic slides and medical illustrations, and working through two-dimensional forms, redolent of flattened and sliced scientific specimens. The title ‘The Great Instauration’ refers to Francis Bacon’s 17th-century founding text on the scientific method, but this time as a contemporary call to restore and renew perspectives on the complex histories of science.”
The Great Instauration will form part of the wider exhibition Science Under the Lens, where visitors can experiment with some of the instruments which inspired the installation, make their own versions to take home and play with the science of light. Younger visitors can use art to tell their own science stories, exploring how light works and the power of story in sharing information.
There will be two tie-events linked to the installation: Exclusive Viewing: The Great Instauration (Sat 4 Apr) allows visitors to view the installation after hours followed by an in-depth discussion of the process with the artist and experts who assisted with research, and Artist Tour: Dr Gayle Chong Kwan (Fri 17 Apr), presented by Edinburgh Art Festival, where visitors join the artist for a guided tour of the artwork, as she speaks through the artist, material and research process that underpin the commission.
World’s first and still one of Europe’s biggest science festivals, Edinburgh Science Festival takes over the city during the Easter break, between 4 and 19 April, with a wide range of workshops, talks, exhibitions and much more, aiming to inspire people of all ages to get hands-on with science.
This year’s theme of Going Global reflects on science as a shared human story: connecting people across countries and continents, joined in scientific breakthroughs and failures, conducting experiments and sharing results. The Festival goes global while also celebrating the local: universities, laboratories, hospitals, schools and cultural spaces.
The Great Instauration has been commissioned by Edinburgh Science, developed with support from Creative Scotland through the Scottish Government’s Festivals Expo Fund, additional funding from the Henry Moore Foundation, and guidance and support from Edinburgh Art Festival, National Museums Scotland, Scottish International Storytelling Festival and Wellcome Collection.
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