Randolph Cliff was initiated by Dr. Clémentine Deliss and Charles Asprey in October 2007 and has since offered residencies to internationally acclaimed artists including Mark Wallinger, Anna Barriball, Frances Stark, Ei Arakawa, Stefan Tcherepnin, Franz Graf, Christian Flamm, Joseph Kosuth, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, David Schutter, Laura Letinsky, Dan Peterman, Manfred Pernice, and Dexter Sinister.

Supported by Edinburgh College of Art and the National Galleries of Scotland, it acts as a watering hole[i] on the road to production, offering artists the opportunity to spend time in Edinburgh. In the 200 square meter Georgian apartment, which looks out to the Dean Bridge and the Firth of Forth, artists may engage in the prelusive, or formative phase that leads to the generation of new works. The College encourages this period of fluid research, as it does the backstage communications that emerge between students, artists, and intellectuals in Edinburgh. Events and Talks take place at the Gallery of Modern Art and Edinburgh College of Art.

To consolidate these nascent conversations, Randolph Cliff is hoping to develop a unique artists’ Research Collection jointly held by Edinburgh College of Art and the National Galleries of Scotland. The Research Collection may include different elements from material works to editions, sound recordings, scenarios, plans, photographs, diaries and notes. These testimonials or souvenirs from the residency in Edinburgh are situated midway between the encoded matrix of a blueprint, and the symbolism of a love letter. As representations, their presence lies to the side of production, just as it coincides with the idiosyncratic route of an artist’s professional development. For students, the exercise it can offer is to learn to understand the methodologies of other artists by seeing materials that contain the search rather than its result, the encryption of things not necessarily to be considered as art (cf. Mel Bochner)[ii]. In this sense, the objective of the Research Collection is to highlight a distinct type of legacy that focuses on items of initiate knowledge, elaborated in the context of Edinburgh. The curatorial approach is less that of an archival procedure than one of a collective work of communication between artists and students.

As it grows in size, the Research Collection can be seen and used by students and members of the public. It becomes a reservoir of works that are not just episodic relics found in the artist’s studio or personal data bank, but are the result of a contemporary dialogue between the artist and the city of Edinburgh. The Research Collection suggests an educational dimension parallel perhaps to Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne: it supports the evolution of new approaches to visual culture, research in art, and critical appraisal. Eventually framed within the room of a college, museum or institute, the installation of RCRC will be in constant transformation changing each time new material is provided, or a visiting artist edits and reclassifies its contents. Through these objects of research, the Randolph Cliff Collection effectively provides the core foundation for a future artists’ institute of research. 

Randolph Cliff continues this academic year with a prestigious line up of artists in residence:

Zvi Goldstein 1st November 2009 - 5th December 2009

Thomas Struth 18th January 2010 - February 10th 2010

Antje Majewski 15th February 2010 - 8th March 2010

Joseph Grigely 1st May 2010 - 29th May 2010

For futher information contact the Director: Dr. Clémentine Deliss .

[i] John Baldessari speaking at Tate Modern Symposium, “A 21st Century School for the Arts”, July 16th, 2005

[ii] Mel Bochner, Workings Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to Be Viewed As Art, New York 1996 (1966)