The 195th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy is now live.
Mills + McCullough Architects feature two works in this year's exhibition where Scottish and international art is exhibited alongside conceptual and realised works of architecture. Our selected works vary significantly in scale, but both unite under the theme of landscape and architecture; a pavilion set within a landscape and a landscape set within a much larger civic arts institution.
The exhibition is the most extensive of contemporary art and architecture in Scotland and has been a central exhibition in the Academy's calendar for 195 years.
Robbie Bushe - Secretary of the RSA comments in his introduction:
"What perhaps connects the selected art and architectural works from this year’s RSA open submission is not the themes or subject matter, but a distinct emotional intensity that is deeply human – whether haunted by the ‘time before’ or the ‘time since’ all our lives changed. "
While it was hoped that a physical exhibition would take place in the magnificent surroundings of the RSA galleries in Edinburgh, sadly the Academy had to take the difficult decision to hold the Annual Exhibition online for the second year running.
In the introduction to the Architecture Viewing Room, Deputy Convenor Professor Neil Gillespie OBE RSA writes:
"In a sense the architecture room of the RSA Annual Exhibition has always been virtual, exhibits have always been removed from the actual work of architecture. The challenge for the architecture exhibit is how to engage the viewer in the visceral, the phenomenological or the material of actual architectural space. Architectural exhibitions are invariably limited to a rehearsal or a recollection of ideas and manifestos. This year architect academicians were encouraged to submit preparatory sketches and texts as well as completed images and more formal drawings of their work in an effort to open up ideas and conversations."
While we would like to invite you to view the works in a physical setting - our alternative is to invite you to view the wide range of works online through the exhibition and viewing rooms created by the RSA team. Mills + McCullough would like to thank the RSA for facilitating the online exhibitions given the limiting circumstances and challenges ensuing the Covid 19 Pandemic.