Created for Johnsons Hotel Linen, Nothing Sinister reflects on the labour of the workers who sort, wash and iron hotel linens, and the unseen lives of the strangers who sleep and rest between the sheets.
Painted on cotton super king sheets and pillowcases, materials otherwise destined for rags or landfill, the works transform discarded linen into a record of human presence, labour and rest.
Installed in the factory’s main loading area and offices, the paintings are encountered by the 278 people who work with the linen every day.
Materials: exterior masonry paint on linen
Dimensions: 305 × 275 cm and 67 × 80 cm
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Johnsons Hotel Linen, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, EH19 3LW, for being open to collaboration; Outerspaces for the studio space; Harrison Reid for photographic documentation of Nothing Sinister works in the studio featured here; Jock Breckenridge for studio assistance; Lorna Swinney and Seth Howe.
My design started it life as ink drawings and you can see the brush marks in the clay. A beautifully articulated surface that captures depth, shadow and movement within the brick itself.
Vessels are containers and so are bricks which makes this perfect artistic collaboration.
Working with Forterra’s to developed precision moulds, working alongside the specialist expertise of Joshua Dempsey.
Artist Nicola Atkinson explores the complex emotional and physical burdens of material accumulation in her exhibition, "STUFF." The project examines the inherited items passed down by loved ones alongside the artist’s own extensive archive of creative work. The collection is a tangible exploration of human attachment. By highlighting the things we create, the waste we leave behind, and the treasured objects that house our memories
She highlights the tension between the sentimental value of these objects and the overwhelming weight of their preservation. This collection, which includes over a decade of ceramic pieces, serves as a meditation on what society chooses to discard versus what it treasures.
Ultimately, the exhibition questions how much physical property a person truly needs to navigate their life and legacy.
Nicola Atkinson’s "STUFF" exhibition serves as a profound meditation on the physical and emotional weight of material possessions. At its core, her artwork confronts a universal dilemma: what are we supposed to do with the things we make, the objects we inherit, and the constant influx of new items?
She invited the public to become custodians. Her stuff became their stuff. 700 custodians were found.
My ideas and designs partly start their life as scale drawings on brown paper and hand cut, so you can see the expressive marks.
The vessels have been the main source of the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks.
When I was invited by my friends Vivian and Kevin to think about their ‘Greek’ Thompson home on Moray Place, it seemed like the perfect place to set seven bold and colourful Vessels in their very large windows.
Beautiful Materials Gallery at the Avenue Shopping centre G77 6AA - from 15 Nov 2025 until 3 May 2026
Photographer© Nicola R Atkinson
Balivanich, Isle of Benbecula
Created by Nicola Atkinson in September 2025, with 1200 individual pieces of transparent vinyl hand cut and applied.
Thank you for supporting and making this possible, Anne Corrance Monk, Sorcha Monk, Sheena Stewart, Uist Council of Voluntary Organisations and the owner of the site Jonny Murray, Bike Hebrides.
Photographer© Nicola R Atkinson
