Moving Image Programme

  • RSA200: Moving Image Programme The RSA200: Moving Image Programme has been curated by painter and filmmaker Ronald Forbes RSA to...

    Tracy Mackenna RSA, Gaps and Slippages, 2017, Kate Whiteford RSA (with Alex Graham), A' Bheinn / The Mountain, 2009, Edward Summerton RSA, The Landscape Artist, 2021, Dalziel + Scullion RSA, Raven, 2025 (stills, details)

     

    RSA200: Moving Image Programme

     

    The RSA200: Moving Image Programme has been curated by painter and filmmaker Ronald Forbes RSA to showcase moving image work by Royal Scottish Academicians and RSA award winners. Reflecting artists’ moving image practice in Scotland from the past and present, it includes work from the RSA Collection and work being made today.   

     

    The programme will be screened at participating venues across Scotland in 2026. 

     

    The full programme has eight packages of moving image work on six different themes, with work by 26 artists. 

     

     

     

     
  • The Moving Sketchbook, Films based on artists’ sketchbooks and artworks in progress.
    Joyce Cairns PPRSA and Andy Rice, Fragments, 2006 (still, detail)

    The Moving Sketchbook

    Films based on artists’ sketchbooks and artworks in progress.

    (Running time: 37 minutes) 

     

    Film is not the means of expression primarily used by these RSA Academicians in their practice, but here they have explored their ideas and thinking with support from film and design practitioners. 

     

    Will Maclean RSA and Andy Rice, Casa Berti, 2012 (16:15)  

    Victoria Crowe RSA, Inflorescence, 2007 (5:00)  

    Joyce Cairns PPRSA and Andy Rice, Fragments, 2006 (8:06)  

    Kate Downie RSA, Drawing the Pibroch, 2010 (6:29)  

     

    Will Maclean RSA, in partnership with graphic designer Andy Rice, explores the expansive sketchbook material from his Casa Berti project, producing a musical and poetic experience.  

    Victoria Crowe RSA leads us, with simple page-turning, through her exquisitely crafted sketchbook developing her ideas about plants and mythology. 

    Joyce Cairns PPRSA is supported by Andy Rice in exploring her monumental paintings, which contemplate personal family history and the World Wars of the 20th century. We are led through finished works and a range of photographic material that was her starting point and inspiration for these works.  

    Kate Downie RSA’s film exploits the qualities of time lapse photography to produce a moving-image and time-based experience of the creation of a wall drawing being made in the RSA building that the viewer, later, would experience as a still and timeless image. 

     
  • Culture Above and Beyond: Parts One & Two, Films that centre on rural and wilder places.
    Tim Sandys, North Platte, 2016 (still, detail)

    Culture Above and Beyond: Parts One & Two

    Films that centre on rural and wilder places.

    In Culture Above and Beyond Parts One and Two we have a range of films that have a setting that is rural or coastal, rather than urban. This setting is explored visually, revealing the fundamental beauty of nature. These works, in different ways, also focus on the profound social and cultural effects of the environment, natural and physical. 

     

    Part One 

    (Running time: 32 minutes) 

    Daniel Cook, Love Letters from Aberdeenshire, 2022 (20:10)  

    Tim Sandys, North Platte, 2016 (10:27)  

     

    In Love Letters from Aberdeenshire, Daniel Cook relates a narrative of lost love. This is supported by the romantic lusciousness of Elvis' songs, contrasting with the testing living conditions of a northern fishing community. 

    In North Platte, Tim Sandys creates a percussive, rhythmic musical work with crisp sunlit visuals in the unlikely setting of an industrial railway junction located at snowbound North Platte, Nebraska, USA. 

     

     
  • Part Two (Running time: 53 minutes) Dalziel + Scullion RSA, Source, 2007 (14:49) Edward Summerton RSA, Dighty Burn, 2011 (5:08)...
    Dalziel + Scullion RSA, Source, 2007 (still, detail)

    Part Two 

    (Running time: 53 minutes) 

    Dalziel + Scullion RSA, Source, 2007 (14:49) 

    Edward Summerton RSA, Dighty Burn, 2011 (5:08) 

    Graham Fagen RSA, Baile an Or, 2011 (8:04) 

    Kate Whiteford RSA (with Alex Graham), A' Bheinn / The Mountain, 2009 (24:12) 

     

    In Source, Dalziel + Scullion RSA reveal the elemental beauty of rugged coastal nature through the eyes of a young boy. We share his wonder at the orderly communities of creatures and plants from shore to field. 

    In Dighty Burn, Edward Summerton RSA and Michael Windle present the story of a historic tragedy which occurred at the Dighty Burn in Angus, Scotland. A folksong on the soundtrack carries the narrative, as the camera presents beautiful images of the water and the surrounding landscape.  

    In Baile an Or, Graham Fagen RSA explores the sea, river and land that form Helmsdale and the Strath of Kildonan; the gold that comes from its geology, the living that is made from its land and the legacy of its past.  

    In A' Bheinn / The Mountain, Kate Whiteford RSA takes us on a journey through the landscape, culture, time and poetry of the western isles of Skye, Raasay, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Lewis and Harris, following the life and journeys of the poets Mary MacClean and Donald John MacDonald.  

     
  • Florence: New Reactions
    John Kellock, Shall Not Lovers Weep, 2011 (still, detail)

    Florence: New Reactions

    (Running time: 48 minutes) 

     

    Each year, the  RSA John Kinross Scholarship enables ten final year and postgraduate art and architecture students the opportunity to research and develop their practice in Florence for up to three months. After the completion of the scholarship, each artist deposits a work in the RSA Collection that resulted from their time in Florence. Over the years, most works were in the form of paintings, drawings, sketchbooks or photographs. However, in recent times an increasing number of artists have submitted moving image works. This is a selection of six of those from RSA Collections. 

     

    Abigail Dryburgh, The Bargello, 2015 (3:33)  

    Sophie Lunts, Il Palimpsesto, 2020 (1:25)  

    Harry Casey, Nuova Cronica, 2012-13 (18:07)  

    John Kellock, Shall Not Lovers Weep, 2011 (7:00)  

    Anna Hughes, Silk Scarves for a Tomboy, 2015 (4:43)  

    Rachel McBrinn, Luigi Mecocci, via dei Velluti, Firenze, 2015 (12:36) 

     

    Abigail Dryburgh uses architectural computer-aided design to reimagine the Bargello; Sophie Lunts explores the palimpsest concept of erasure and reinstatement to reveal Florentine details; Harry Casey takes us beyond the great culture and tourist tat in search of the real city; John Kellock presents us with an image of the Ponte Vecchio that almost feels like a still image, but for the tiny active figure and the slow progress of the River Arno; Anna Hughes presents us with an elegant and witty work contemplating the mysteries of image, translation and gender; Rachel McBrinn offers a sensitive and well-crafted documentary about a dedicated Florentine craftsman. 

     

    All these films share personal observations of, and offer us new insights into, Florence. 

     
  • Language, Place and Understanding, Films that contemplate our understanding of, and our relationship with language, time and place.
    Alicia Bruce, Sim Scenario, 2015 (still, detail)

    Language, Place and Understanding

    Films that contemplate our understanding of, and our relationship with language, time and place.

    (Running time: 60 minutes) 

     

    We adopt different languages - verbal, literary and visual - to explore and describe our environment, whether it may be physical, cultural or ideological. This programme of six films presents us with an intriguing variety of ways of forming an understanding of these varied contexts. 

     

    Oana Stanciu, Stai in banca ta/ Behave, 2021 (7:24)  

    Ronald Forbes RSA, Behaviour Patterns, 1977 (5:00)  

    Tracy Mackenna RSA, Language, Listening and Belonging, 2017 (8:59)  

    Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), Dr Cute, 2019 (4:44) 

    Alicia Bruce, Sim Scenario, 2015 (6:23)  

    Katri Walker, Rapture, 2012 (5:20) 

    Murray Grigor HRSA, Space and Light Revisited, 2009 (7:37)  

     

    In Stai in banca ta/ Behave, Oana Stanciu creates a macro-environment as she grapples with, and becomes embedded in, pieces of furniture. She choreographs these clips into multiples that appear to liberate rather than confine. 

    In Behaviour Patterns, Ronald Forbes RSA uses images of simple street scenes, alongside clips from well-known films. He distorts these through an array of patterns, testing our ability to perceive and comprehend. 

    In Language, Listening and Belonging, Tracy Mackenna RSA employs a creative toolkit of self, voice, sound, drawing, writing, film, travel, learning, story and people in a visually fast-moving sequence that causes the viewer to flit between different types of comprehension. 

    In Dr Cute, Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect) uses the context of an academic lecture to examine the meaning of ‘cute-ness’. As the visuals and action become ever more extreme, the authority of the professorial verbal diatribe is somewhat diminished. 

    In Sim Scenario, Alicia Bruce undermines our expectations when we are presented with a sterile medical setting where a medical practitioner appears to offer treatment to a patient in a hospital bed. It later becomes apparent that the patient is not real and this is part of an externally controlled training programme. 

    In Rapture, Katri Walker presents a documentary about a long-established evangelical Christian book shop based in an Edinburgh flat. The family members who own and run it provide a voice-over as the camera meanders around the space and the merchandise. 

    In Space and Light Revisited, Murray Grigor HRSA uses twin images on screen where his earlier documentary is paired with a more recent examination of the same subject.  One shows the early glories of the recently built and occupied architectural masterpiece, St Peter’s Seminary, Cardross, and the more recent work shows its current state of dereliction and decay. 

     
  • Academicians’ Showcase: Parts One & Two
    Wendy McMurdo RSA, Olympia, 2011 (still, detail)

    Academicians’ Showcase: Parts One & Two

    The Academicians’ Showcase packages are not thematic in structure, but rather they celebrate the diversity of types of moving image works produced by Academicians. This includes works by those for whom film is central to their practice, and others by those who only occasionally use the medium. Each programme offers a viewing experience that varies from light-hearted to complex and profound. 

     

    Part One 

    (Running time: 47 minutes) 

    Dalziel + Scullion RSA, Raven, 2025 (19:00)  

    Wendy McMurdo RSA, Olympia, 2011 (5:12) (Also in Seeing and Believing)  

    Edward Summerton RSA, The Landscape Artist, 2021 (8:17) 

    Tracy Mackenna RSA, Gaps and Slippages, 2017 (4:23)  

    Kate Whiteford RSA, Wings of Desire, 2018 (9.42)  

     

    Dalziel + Scullion RSA’s film, Raven, follows a pair of ravens over the period of a year, absorbed in the elements of their island home. These intelligent, mischievous and darkly beautiful birds appear as emissaries from the past and the future. Filmed on the island of Lewis where Dalziel and Scullion live, this work beautifully melds the physical and the spiritual.  

    In Olympia, Wendy McMurdo RSA observes the movements of a beautifully engineered skeletal humanoid robot, where the separate fully realised head articulates to the sounds of the aria Olympia from Offenbach’s opera Tales of Hoffmann.  

    In The Landscape Artist, Edward Summerton RSA performs as the landscape artist, spending eight minutes trying to start a petrol-driven lawnmower. 

    In Language, Gaps and Slippages, Tracy Mackenna RSA employs a creative toolkit of self, voice, sound, drawing, writing, film in a visually fast-moving sequence that causes the viewer to flit between different types of understanding. 

    Kate Whiteford RSA was motivated to produce Wings of Desire when she was intrigued to learn that Emily Bronte kept - and was inspired by - a rescued injured hawk. In celebration of this, she uses aerial imagery to present the landscape from the human and from the bird's-eye perspective. 

     
  • Part Two (Running time: 44 minutes) Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), The Lion and the Unicorn, 2012 (11:30) Graham Fagen RSA,...
    Graham Fagen RSA, Auld Lang Syne c/w The Slave’s Lament, 2005 (still, detail)

    Part Two 

    (Running time: 44 minutes) 

     

    Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), The Lion and the Unicorn, 2012 (11:30) 

    Graham Fagen RSA, Auld Lang Syne c/w The Slave’s Lament, 2005 (6:58)  

    Ken Currie RSA, Stone Circle, 2025 (12.00) (Also in Seeing and Believing) 

    Kate Downie RSA, The Little Bridges of Perthshire, 2020 (1:55) 

    Jo Ganter RSA, Guitar Ellipses, 2020 (0:56)  

    Ronald Forbes RSA, Hello and Goodbye, 2025 (5:00) 

     

    In The Lion and the Unicorn, Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect) shines an irreverent light on Scottish-English relations, with the English lion and the Scottish unicorn debating the future of the United Kingdom. Found audio is lip-synced by the artist playing the wonderfully costumed range of characters.  

    In Auld Lang Syne c/w The Slave’s Lament, Graham Fagen RSA explores the complex relationship between Scottish and Caribbean history by juxtaposing two of Burns' works, connecting the past with the present through musical reinterpretations, and performed as reggae. 

    In Stone Circle, Ken Currie RSA asserts that he had nothing in mind other than to simply shoot film, and insists that the images are random, fragmentary and entirely improvised. Instead, we the audience are creating a shifting reality. 

    In The Little Bridges of Perthshire, Kate Downie RSA explores the subject of the title by simply panning and tracking through a richly atmospheric series of pen and ink sketches.  

    In Guitar Ellipses, Jo Ganter RSA creates an engaging abstract geometric musical vision of a guitar theme that is as disciplined and succinct as a haiku. 

    Ronald Forbes RSA, in Hello and Goodbye, pays homage to Shakespeare’s seven ages of man, as animated disembodied men’s suits adopt the colours of the rainbow as they dance throughout their journey. The whole of life distilled into five minutes.  

     
  • Seeing and Believing, Films that question our understanding of reality.
    Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), DUCK, 2023 (still, detail)

    Seeing and Believing

    Films that question our understanding of reality.

    (Running time: 47 minutes) 

     

    It's particularly appropriate at this time, when there's wide concern about ideas of truth, fake news and the effects of artificial intelligence, that we contemplate and question our perceptions of reality. Here we have a programme of four films that deal with such questions. 

     

    Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), DUCK, 2023 (16:00) 

    Wendy McMurdo RSA, Olympia, 2011 (5:12) (Also in Academicians: Part One)  

    Ronald Forbes RSA, Only Make Believe, 2014 (12:00) 

    Ken Currie RSA, Stone Circle, 2025 (12:00) (Also in Academicians: Part Two)  

     

    Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect)’s DUCK is a daring deepfake short that follows Sean Connery’s unravelling after he witnesses Marilyn Monroe’s return from the dead. All of this has been created using sophisticated AI technology. All parts are played by Rachel Maclean, but presented, through AI, to us as a range of our favourite film stars. 

    In Wendy McMurdo RSA’s Olympia, the camera glides balletically through an interior space observing the movements of a beautifully engineered skeletal humanoid robot. When we eventually see the separate fully realised head we circle around it to the sounds of the aria Olympia from Offenbach’s opera Tales of Hoffmann, creating an image that is full of both wonder and pathos. 

    In Ronald Forbes RSA’s Only Make Believe, a terrorist forces a couple, who bear a caricature likeness to members of the British royal family, to join another couple in their homely imprisonment in a war zone. Who do they think they are? Who do WE think they are? Throughout, TV clips of pro-war propaganda are interlaced with the absurdity of this mysterious scenario.  

    Ken Currie RSA asserts that in In Stone Circle he had nothing in mind other than to simply shoot film, and insists that the images are random, fragmentary and entirely improvised.  However, he uses many cinematic devices, which create dramatic tensions, and these cause the viewer to weave varying narratives around the perceived action.  We the audience are creating a shifting reality. 
  • Curator's Overview, Ronald Forbes RSA
    Ronald Forbes RSA, Hello and Goodbye, 2025 (still, detail)

    Curator's Overview

    Ronald Forbes RSA

    When Sandy Wood, Head of Collections at the Royal Scottish Academy, asked me whether I would like to curate a programme of moving image works from the RSA Collection and by RSA Academicians as part of RSA200, I was immediately enthusiastic. Perhaps I was slightly wary of the magnitude of the task, having curated the Focus on Film exhibition at the RSA Annual in 2014. However, I was very keen to celebrate film-making activity, and to acknowledge the embrace that the RSA has offered in recent times to this and other developments in art practice and activity. 

     

    I see a curation such as this as being akin to hanging a large-scale mixed exhibition, such as the RSA Annual. In such an installation I would share the approach that many convenors and curators have taken throughout the years. My intention would be to present an elegant and engaging experience, ensuring a high overall aesthetic, but preserving the integrity, worth and power of each individual work. There would also be the additional and delightful frisson that occurs when the juxtaposition of works forms a new dynamic that would enhance the power of each.

     

    I hope that I have gone some way to achieving these qualities in this curation. The overall programme is divided into a series of eight programmes on six themes. I considered not only content and subject matter, but running time and stylistic factors when making groupings. I have been careful to keep the graphics carrying necessary information, such as titles, simple, and the spacing between films just right to allow us to move on from one film to the next without disrespectful haste. I also hope that the viewer makes the discovery of unexpected relationships between works that has delighted me over the months. Most importantly, I hope that viewers enjoy the rich variety of vision, insight and creativity that these artists offer us.

     

     

  • Banner image: Stills from the RSA200 Moving Image Programme - left to right: 

    Oana Stanciu, Stai in banca ta/ Behave, Tim Sandys, North Platte, Ronald Forbes RSA, Only Make Believe, Tracy Mackenna RSA, Language, Listening and Belonging, Rachel Maclean RSA (Elect), The Lion and the Unicorn, Rachel McBrinn, Luigi Mecocci, via dei Velluti, Firenze, Edward Summerton RSA, Dighty Burn, Katri Walker, Rapture.