The Edinburgh gallery Bard is hosting an exhibition of 10 monumental photographic prints by artist and activist Matthew Hyndman in a show called Upended
Photography by Fran Mart featuring Matthew Hyndman’s Upended
Bard, the Edinburgh-based shop and gallery dedicated to Scottish craft and design, has unveiled a bold new photography exhibition entitled Upended, by artist and activist Matthew Hyndman. Founded by husbands Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens as a home for Scottish craft and design, Bard opened in November 2022 and today showcases the work of around 50 contemporary artists and makers, alongside a selection of historic and found objects from all over Scotland. Their mission is to tell stories about Scottish cultural identity through made objects, makers and making.
Continuing Bard’s ethos, Upended opened as part of the 20th anniversary of the Edinburgh Art Festival last month and will run until October 27th. Featuring 10 monumental prints, each explores the realms of self-portraiture and challenges the conventions of Scottish landscape photography.
‘We are numb to these epic vistas from their over-use in tourism campaigns and across social media,’ says James Stevens, co-founder of Bard. ‘Put a bottom in the frame and we see the view anew all over again. Beyond Matthew and because of him, the landscape feels arresting in its majesty. We marvel at the technical feat. We wonder about midges and passers-by.’
Photography by Fran Mart featuring Matthew Hyndman’s Upended
Known for his fearless exploration of identity and defiance, Upended sees Hyndman presenting himself naked and upside down in every shot, set against Scotland’s most stunning backdrops. On the one hand, the works celebrate the majestic Scottish scenery with a contemporary and playful twist. But on the other, these photographs also tell a deeply personal story of transformation, resistance and liberation.
Hyndman formerly belonged to a devout religious community. In his early twenties, he was on board a mission ship in South East Asia when he accidentally sent his WhatsApp conversation history with a man he had met online to his entire congregation back home. He left the boat and his church. His life, as he had known it, was upended.
Today, Hyndman lives in Edinburgh with the man who met him off the boat. He co-founded the Ban Conversion Therapy group, raising awareness and lobbying the government against insidious practices that still exist to bully people into believing that homosexuality is a convertible lifestyle choice. His headstands are more than a dare or an attempt to garner influencer status—on the contrary, his nudity means he is all but black-listed from social media.
‘Scotland has become a sanctuary for me,’ Hyndman explains. ‘My headstands are acts of defiance and liberation. I’m shedding more than my clothes and inhibitions; I like to think I’m also shedding an institutionalised version of myself at the same time. I’m baring everything.’ He describes standing naked, facing landscapes of such monumentality as an enlivening experience: ‘It’s humbling and exposing but also empowering.’
‘Being on my head feels like an important form of abstraction, else the decision to be naked feels too loaded,’ says Hyndman. He finds it amusing that the most common responses to the images are questions about his neck and the cold. ‘My neck is fine,’ he confirms, ‘and being cold is not something that worries me at all. Against the great tradition of Scottish landscape photography, there’s a certain cheekiness at play here,’ he laughs. ‘For all that I have overcome personally, ultimately what makes me happiest is when people laugh at the sheer gumption’
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