Edinburgh-based visual artist David Lemm constructs works in response to encountered environments, moments and materials. Working with collected information, imagery and artefacts, he explores site-specific narratives that reveal hidden connections between place, history and materiality.
With a background in animation from DJCAD, Dundee, Lemm’s interdisciplinary approach has been informed by numerous residencies, including the Jon Schueler Scholarship in Skye (2017). His acclaimed Mapping Eigg series (2014) was acquired by the V&A Dundee Scottish Design Galleries, and he has completed public art commissions in Lerwick, Edinburgh and London’s Royal Brompton Hospital.
For Hidden Door’s 2025 Festival Lemm presents Formworks, a collection of assemblage sculptures incorporating reclaimed materials from Leith’s tramline development. These shrine-like structures explore reciprocities between overlooked objects; celebrating creative process and unexpected poetic resonance. Waste industrial components and construction debris are held, framed and presented as if relics or curious artefacts.
This series will be the culmination of a wider body of work exploring these fragments, where Lemm has previously made prints with a found piece of tram track. Referencing the paper factory context he plans to sacrifice these prints to create new paper, further exploring possibilities for material renewal and acts of making.
Find out more at davidlemm.co.uk or instagram.com/david_lemm
