Culloden Battlefield Residencies:

Touching Distance

IOTA has instigated a series of roaming residencies taking place out with Inverness during 2011 – 2012, thanks to funding from Creative Scotland’s Rural Innovation Fund. The first of these residences, Touching Distance, at Culloden Battlefield is a collaboration with the National Trust for Scotland. The commissioned artists, Roger & Reid along with Catherine Bertola, concluded their 6 month research phase in September 2011. Plans are afoot to deliver outcomes during 2012 which will reframe the site’s history and allow people to participate in a contemporary remembrance celebration.

Catherine Bertola’s research has focussed on the importance of cloth in Highland culture, in particular the White Cockades that were worn during the battle as a symbol of allegiance to the Jacobite cause, along with meeting archaeologists to re-examining the site’s metal detection survey from 2006.

Since 2004 Graeme Roger & Kevin Reid have been investigating Jacobite sites from across England and Scotland culminating earlier this year in a new film work Trail of Tears, premiered by IOTA as part of Sublime. Amongst other things their research into traditional music has resulted in a proposal to commission a new Piobaireachd (pronounced 'PEA-broch') - considered to be the Highland Bagpipe's classical music, going back some five centuries. Read more about Roger & Reid's residency on our blog 

Video of Roger & Reid's interviews from the remembrance ceremony in April 2011 below