RSA200: Celebrating Together is an international programme marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture.

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.

To accompany the exhibition The Sea at Catterline by Joan Eardley RSA at the Granary Gallery, The Maltings is delighted to present Culture Above and Beyond from the programme, centering on rural and wilder places.

These films 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.

The programme is as follows:

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)
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.