Pyramid Folly 1972
Pyramid Folly
Catalogue raisonné no. 295
Artist's CR 283
1972
Kinkell
Stonework rendered, plastered and painted
192 inches / 0 cm , height
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Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1993chevron_right
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Gerald Laing, Kinkell: The Reconstruction of a Scottish Castle, Latimer New Dimensions (1st edition 1974) and Ardullie House (2nd edition 1984), London (1974) and Dingwall (1984), 1974chevron_right
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Gerald Laing: A Retrospective 1963–1993, exhibition catalogue, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1993chevron_right
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Gerald Laing, 'Gerald Laing: An Autobiography', unpublished manuscript, 2011chevron_right
Selected Citations and Comments
Laing built this large pyramid, with inside facing seats, using stone from an eighteenth-century extension to Kinkell Castle that he had demolished. It contained two facing seats in order that it might ‘act as a machine for rejuvenation (there is a belief held by many people that meat will not corrupt and razor blades will become sharp if they are kept inside a pyramid)’ (‘Gerald Laing: An Autobiography’, unpublished manuscript, 2011, ch.35), somewhat in the manner of Wilhelm Reich’s orgone accumulators.
Image 1 shows Pyramid Folly covered in foliage in 2015. Image 2 shows Pyramid Folly newly built in 1972.