26 April 2018
For the last 15 years, Scotland + Venice has been providing artists based in Scotland with a valuable platform to showcase their work on the international stage at one of the world’s most prestigious visual arts festivals, the Venice Biennale. Previous artists have included Graham Fagen, Karla Black and Martin Boyce.
For the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2017, the selected artist was Rachel Maclean. A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, Maclean makes films using green screen technology to create outlandish characters and fantasy worlds in which she explores politics, society and identity. Spite Your Face was written when Donald Trump had just won the Presidential election and in the aftermath of the EU Referendum and explores, amongst other things, notions of truth. The basis of the narrative in which Maclean plays all the parts, is the classic Italian folktale, The Adventures of Pinocchio.
This is the UK premiere the work which was originally commissioned by Talbot Rice Gallery ad Alchemy Film and Arts for Scotland + Venice. We will be joined by Stuart Fallon, Assistant Curator at the Gallery who worked closely on the project.
31 March 2016
This month, we will discuss highlights from the British Art Show 8 exhibition where we will be joined by Mairi Lafferty, Daskalopoulos Curator of Engagement at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
The British Art Show is a touring exhibition taking place every five years that provides a vital overview of the most significant contemporary art produced in the UK. British Art Show 8 has been curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee is hosted across three galleries in Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One); Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh. This year, it tours the work of over 40 artists to four cities across the UK.
We look forward to seeing you there.
25 April 2013, 6-7.30pm
For our April Spin event, we will be visiting Summerhall, the new arts venue in the former Royal Dick Vet School building at the edge of The Meadows. It is the first major new arts venue to have opened in Edinburgh for many years and houses several gallery spaces, performance spaces, artists’ studios and the Demarco Collection among numerous other activities. Curator Paul Robertson will join us in discussing two exhibitions: The Beautiful Book and Flickering Lights: Rachel McLean and Ryan Gander and the broader aims for the new venue.
The Beautiful Book is an exhibition of one artwork by filmmaker, photographer and gay icon Jack Smith. In 1962, Smith made one of the most famous of photographic art books – that book was called The Beautiful Book. It was the only autonomous collection of his photographs that appeared before his death in 1989.
Presented as part of the Flickering Lights programme at Summerhall, Lolcatz is a film by up-and-coming Edinburgh-trained artist Rachel Maclean. Her films are always garish and chaotic comprising mash-up pop culture, television hype and Scottish identity. Lolzcatz is an ornate mix of Egyptian cat worship, the Tower of Babel, a Starbucks-like trading symbol and internet memes.
Finally, we will look at Ryan Gander’s film work As It Presents Itself – Somewhere Vague. Made in claymation, it brings together characters based on Spike Milligan, curator Matthew Higgs, Mrs Frances Gander (the artist’s mother), the Lumière Brothers, Auguste and Louis. Written by Gander, the voiceover is provided by actor Richard Briers.
