ROLL THE DICE
A collaborative work, made with Ailsa Lochhead.
Our video installation was commissioned by Art Walk Porty in conjuntion with Nobles Amusements and funded by Creative Scotland.
Arcade commissions were a series of performance based commissions for 2025 10th anniversary of the Art Walk, under the this year’s theme of Showground - celebrating Portobello’s rich history of seaside entertainment and connections with travelling people.
Nobles history - “This corner on the promenade has been a source of family entertainment for over a century…
Our journey started in 1907 when the renowned magician Harry Marvello, was granted permission to construct a new entertainment pavilion between The Tower Hotel and the promenade in Portobello. Originally intended as a music hall and capable of accommodating 700 people, the pavilion was also equipped with the unique feature of a tea garden on the roof.
Marvello, a close friend of Harry Houdini and a favourite performer of the British elite, including a performance for Queen Victoria herself, established the "amusement pavilion" in front of his Tower Hotel, and it swiftly became Portobello's inaugural variety hall, drawing both locals and tourists from all over. However, amidst the national craze for roller skating at the time, Marvello quickly repurposed the pavilion, making it the first roller skating rink in Portobello.
In 1908, the Tower Pavilion, as it was then named, received a theatre license, marking the beginning of summer seaside variety shows that thrived in Portobello until the 1930s.
The pavilion has undergone numerous transformations over the years, turning from theater to a roller rink, a boxing ring, and even an exotic zoo.
Around the 1960s, the arcade underwent more significant renovations. The theatre closed, making way for a new era of entertainment featuring games and electronic amusements such as the famous penny pushers! Pinball machines, prize bingo, video games, and air hockey tables followed. Thus recasting itself again as a popular spot for teenagers and families, and settling into its current identity as Nobles Amusement.
This iconic arcade has endured the passage of time, continuing to captivate generations with its entertainment offerings. A landmark in the community of Portobello, Nobles Amusements remains a regular destination for fun-filled outings, held dear by locals and visitors alike.”
Art Walk Porty - “In response to Portobello’s seaside era of showground entertainment and travelling showpeople culture, ARCADE explored public spaces in and around Portobello Beach and Promenade as a playground for encounter. A series of performance and installation based works were created featuring circus, acrobatics, dance, theatre, puppetry and film.
Works were commissioned by Art Walk Projects for the 2025 Art Walk Porty Festival ‘ShowGround’, funded by Creative Scotland.
Drawing inspiration from the layered patterns found in nature and urban play spaces – tidal rhythms of waves and slot machines, moonlight shimmers and flickering arcade lights – Roll the Dice explores tensions between randomness and repetition, pleasure and discomfort, connection and disconnection, winning and losing.
The resulting film layers abstract fragments of movement and light from a bespoke Move To Feel session held on Portobello Beach in July, led by Ailsa Lochhead and filmed by Solen Collet. Intercut with the neon pulse of Noble’s Amusements, the black-and-white installation becomes a sensory collage – blurring serenity and overstimulation, meditative dance and hypnotic gameplay – inviting viewers to gamble with perception itself.
About
Ailsa Lochhead and Solen Collet collaborate at the intersection of process, image and emotion. Guided by somatic intuition and creative play, they transmute experience into layered works that deepen the dialogue between body and material. Their collaboration is an evolving exploration of place, image, and the unseen currents within.”
Solen’s personal essay on the vaudeville and boobs (which is related to this project!)
Art Walk commissioned writing by Dr Merlyn Seller
This work has been exhibited at : Art Walk Portobello, 4-15 Sept 25
Visual Art Scotland’s The Thread We Pull exhibition, RSA at The Mound, Dec 25-Jan 26