Kitsch, violent, humorous and monstrously alluring: welcome to the world of Rachel Maclean.
In the run-up to the 2014 referendum on Scottish Independence, Maclean's solo show I HEART SCOTLAND at Edinburgh Printmakers next month dissects the symbolism of power, national identity and political publicity. Her digital prints cannibalise 'the rugged romance of Scottish Landscape painting, the all-smiling, futurist visions of SNP propaganda and the hyper-saturated pop colours of "Oor Wullie"'. Maclean herself appears as actor and model.
Maclean is a 25-year-old Glasgow-based artist who studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 2005–09. Nowadays she mostly specialises in 'green screen composite video and digital print, often exhibiting this alongside props, costumes and related sculpture and painting'.
The resulting surreal tableaux are absurdly serious, and in this case 'installed with a Baroque disdain for emptiness [which will transform] the space into an intimate National Gallery, cum shop-bought Victorian castle'.
Maclean herself uses the term 'kitsch', but the message of her work is far from complacent or sentimental. The surface slickness of her images may momentarily amuse the eye, but – to paraphrase Dutton – there is little else to flatter, soothe or reassure the viewer/consumer. Maclean entertains, provokes, disturbs, appalls.
The artist will talk about her work at a free event on Thursday 1 August (6–7pm), for which pre-booking is advised. And a family-friendly costume workshop will also run on 7 August, details of which are available here.
Spurtle very much looks forward to this show, which promises a beguiling Moulinex of Newsnight, Scott, Gillray, Raeburn, Koons and Gunther von Hagens.
I HEART SCOTLAND runs at Edinburgh Printmakers, 23 Union Street, from 2 August–7 September.
