24/06/2026
John Latham - He looked at the shale bings and saw monuments.
When John Latham turned his attention to West Lothian in the 1970s, most people saw industrial waste. Latham saw process, sculptures – vast pink-red forms built by labour, time and extraction, as significant as Skara Brae or Callanish. His advocacy helped secure protection for the Five Sisters Bing, now a scheduled monument and important regenerating ecosystem.
Latham’s work is at the heart of EXTRACTION, our new exhibition. Those same bings are still on our horizon. The pipeline still runs beneath.
Come and see what Latham saw.
Book tickets via the link in our bio
Images: Portrait of John Latham in his studio, © The John Latham Foundation
John Latham, Face to Face (1985), Extraction, The Steadings Gallery, 2026. Photography by Sally Jubb. ()