Aoife Cawley, Dominae In Horto
RSA Residencies for Scotland is an artist-led scheme which enables visual artists a period of research, development and production at partner venues across Scotland. This year seventeen artists have been awarded a total of £58,000 for residencies at partner venues across Scotland. Residencies are generously supported by the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and the RSA W and Jay Gordon-Smith Bequest.
Aoife Cawley - Glasgow Print Studio
Aoife Cawley uses printmaking and textiles to explore themes of history, folklore and mythology. During her residency, she will expand upon research into Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy, first developed during her RSA John Kinross Scholarship in Florence. Cawley plans to further develop her printmaking practice through the creation of bright, complex screen prints and atmospheric etchings.
Yeonjoo Cho - WASPS, The Admiral’s House, Skye
Yeonjoo Cho uses drawing and painting to explore ideas of home, migration and temporary dwelling. During a residency at the Admiral’s House, she will undertake a period of research through writing, drawing and conversations with local residents and travellers. The residency will culminate in a drawing book combining observations of the bothy and surrounding landscape with fragments of conversation and traces of movement across the island.
Cassia Dodman - Bothy Project, Isle of Eigg
*Supported by the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust
Based in Orkney, Cassia Dodman’s practice explores human impact on marine environments through sculpture, textiles and repurposed industrial materials. During her residency at the Bothy Project on the Isle of Eigg, she will research the relationship between industrial activity and coastal habitats through walking, snorkelling and engagement with local marine initiatives.
Dylan Esposito – Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden
*Supported by the RSA W and Jay Gordon-Smith Bequest
Dylan Esposito’s sculptural practice explores ideas of functionality, accessibility and neurodivergence through tactile forms. During his time at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, he will research metal working and stone carving techniques, developing new approaches to working directly with materials rather than replicating them through casting.
Tess Glen - Edinburgh Printmakers
During a residency at Edinburgh Printmakers, Tess Glen will develop a collaborative film project with writer Rory Allison centred on the fictional radical estate agency, Toryglen Realtors. Glen will produce ambitious multi-plate colour etchings depicting surreal reimagined interiors, combining printmaking techniques to create layered works that function as both artworks and storytelling devices within the film.
Alistair Gow - Cove Park, Argyll and Bute
*Supported by the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust
Alistair Gow works across painting and printmaking, creating works rooted in the routines of everyday life. During a residency at Cove Park, he will take time to reflect on and write about recent work developed alongside family life and his role at Glasgow Print Studio. Combining research, critical reflection and small-scale experiments in painting, woodcut and monotype, Gow aims to develop new directions for his practice.
Mina Heydari-Waite - Cove Park, Argyll and Bute
At Cove Park, Mina Heydari-Waite will develop waste of waters, a new 16mm moving image work inspired by Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Through film, field recordings and process-led experimentation, the residency will support the development of new material responding to water, infrastructure and the charged coastal landscape surrounding Cove Park.
Adil Iqbal - An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
Adil Iqbal works with wool, embroidery and textiles to explore ideas of language, ancestry and belonging across Chitral, Edinburgh and the Outer Hebrides. During a residency at An Lanntair, he will undertake research for a new body of stitched textile works, gathering visual, written and audio material through walking, recording and conversations with local communities.
Josie KO – Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop
*Supported by the RSA W and Jay Gordon-Smith Bequest
During a residency at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Josie KO will develop a new phase of research-led practice focusing on ceramics and metal casting, drawing on pre-colonial Nigerian histories and Yoruba blacksmithing traditions linked to her surname, Ogun. Through small-scale sand casting and material experimentation, she aims to expand her sculptural language and develop works that reimagine Black female presence within both contemporary British sculpture and public space.
Lynsey Mackenzie - An Cridhe, Isle of Coll
Lynsey MacKenzie creates landscape-like spaces from memory, place and lived experience, using intuitive processes that respond to colour, materiality and gesture. During a residency on the Isle of Coll, she will immerse herself in the island’s coastal and moorland environments, developing sketchbook studies and mixed media works through walking, observation and engagement with the landscape.
Stephanie Mann - Edinburgh Printmakers
Stephanie Mann works across sculpture, film, print and text, exploring how objects hold meaning, transform and relate to the material world. During a residency at Edinburgh Printmakers, she will develop new work using screenprinting to continue her research into object agency. Focusing on materials such as rock, soil and mineral matter, she will experiment with pigment and layered print processes to create works that sit between image and material.
Kit Martin – Stills, Edinburgh
*Supported by the RSA W and Jay Gordon-Smith Bequest
Kit Martin works with cameraless historical processes such as cyanotype, lumens and photograms as well as film and digital photography to explore connections with the natural world. During a residency at Stills, she will develop her darkroom practice with a focus on analogue colour photography and sustainable photographic methods. Working with film, cameraless techniques and experimental processes, Martin will explore gardens, mosses and small-scale ecologies.
Hilary Nicoll – Dundee Contemporary Arts
Hilary Nicoll’s practice uses her familial archive, particularly materials left by her late father, to explore memory, loss and object-based storytelling. During a residency at DCA Print Studio, she will develop a body of print-based work that reimagines archival materials through layering, transparency and architectural references. Working at a larger scale and incorporating text, print and installation elements, Nicoll will expand her research into memory, modernist architecture and vanishing point perspectives.
Sin Park - RSA Collections, Edinburgh
Moving between abstraction and representation, Sin Park uses painting as a space where memory, landscape, identity and perception intersect. She’ll spend her residency studying how painters construct surface, composition and tone, with particular attention to sketchbooks and works in process. Drawing on artists within the RSA Collection, Park will use this period to develop her understanding of material decision making in painting.
Jane Skeer – Deveron Projects, Huntly
Jane Skeer works across sculpture, installation, photography and writing, with a focus on overlooked materials and their potential. During a residency at Deveron Projects, she will develop aresearch-led body of work exploring place, community and landscape through site-responsive making and observation. Working with found materials, Skeer will explore narrative methodologies and emotive experience.
Fi Thomson - Peacock & the Worm, Aberdeen
Fi Thomson uses landscape to explore themes of gender, equality, biodiversity and storytelling. During a residency at Peacock Printmakers, they will develop their drawing practice through etching on steelplates, translating large-scale ink drawings into finished prints. Working with technical support, Thomson will focus on mark-making, plate tone and scale tocreate etchings that reflect layered memories.
Ella Williams – The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
*Supported by the RSA W and Jay Gordon-Smith Bequest
Ella Williams’ practice explores how experiences of place can be translated into layered compositions. During a residency in Orkney, she will develop a sequence of paintings that respond to the islands’ landscape, archaeology and storytelling traditions. Drawing on archival research, observational studies and local histories, Williams will build avisual record that reimagines Orkney through motifs, memory and abstraction, informed by both myth and lived experience of place.
Find out more about RSA Residencies for Scotland
