Some fourteen sculptures by John McCracken are dispersed throughout the galleries at Inverleith House. The works lean against the walls or stand proudly in the rooms overlooking the grounds of the Royal Botanic Garden. They appear as exotic as the plants outside and are distinguished by the kind of names that they might have invented for themselves; "Ace," "Hotshot," "Guardian," "Emissary," "Spaceway," "Luster," and "Stardust." McCracken presents his objects as visitors: mysterious and transient. He cultivates a mood of cosmic camaraderie and installs his work to effect a casual occupation of space.
McCracken says that he thinks of color as a “structural material,” more significant than plywood, fiberglass, and resin. To this end, he has hit on a formula that combines a “range of mainly primary and secondary colors” with a requisite surface finish to give the right “intensity and transparency.” While the ground-floor galleries are given over to a group of shiny black columnlike antagonists that wear their color and uniformity like a suit of armor, the space upstairs is dominated by a nonchalant collection of brightly arrayed primaries scattered about the space in a more haphazard fashion. Among these works are drawings and notes assembling influences, questions, and philosophies within the work. One such penciled aside reads: INTERESTING IDEA: THESE ARE BEINGS OF ANOTHER WORLD TRANSMITTING THEMSELVES HERE THROUGH ME. DON’T ASK ME WHY THEY’RE HERE.