Year: 2016
Medium: Digital video
Dimensions: 03m 14s running time
Brief biography: b. 1987, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.
Rachel Maclean is a Glasgow-based multi-media artist who creates artificial visions using green-screen technology. In her work she creates fantastical characters (all played by Maclean) and settings to delve into areas of politics, society and identity. Maclean’s work is characterised by the juxtaposition of the seductive and grotesque – the dark reality seeping from behind the candy-coloured façades.
Again and Again and Again, is an excerpt from It’s What’s Inside That Counts (2016) a digital film focusing on our dependence on technology. In It’s What’s Inside That Counts a ‘supermodel-like figurehead of a greed-driven data provider, is stalked by the leader of a band of guerrilla hacktivist rat creatures. Their aim is to disrupt and gorge upon the addictive invisi-juice that powers phones and pocket tablets, gnawing on bandwidth cables like sugar cane, to suck at the sweet nectar within. Above ground, the citizens are infected with a plague like lethargy, becoming zombies who stumble in stained bed clothes in search of ever greater connectivity, totally disconnected from non-virtual reality.’ Taken from Rachel Maclean: Wot u 🙂 about? exhibition guide HOME, Manchester.
Again and Again and Again features the zombie-like citizens chanting, alongside dancing rodent creatures.
Maclean studied at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA, and is currently a lecturer in in Postgraduate Fine Art, Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh.
Maclean exhibits nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include: The Lion and The Unicorn, The National Gallery, London, England (2018/19); Rachel Maclean: Solo Exhibition, KWM Arts Centre, Beijing, China (2018/19); Spite Your Face, Rachel Maclean, Chapter, Cardiff, Wales (2018); Rachel Maclean: Solo Exhibition, Zabludowicz Collection, London, England (2018); Just B Yourself, Rachel Maclean, Dublin City Art Gallery, Dublin (2018); New Worlds, State of Concept, Athens, Greece; Rachel Maclean: Solo Exhibition. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2018); Rachel Maclean: Solo Exhibition. Château de Servières, Marseilles, France (2018); Rachel Maclean: Solo Exhibition, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2018); Spite Your Face, Scotland + Venice, Representing Scotland at the Venice Biennale (2017); Wot u 🙂 about? Art Now, Tate Britain, London, England (2016/17); Wot u 🙂 about? HOME, Manchester, England (2016).
Group exhibitions include: I’m Terribly Sorry at ISO Design, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Glasgow (2019); Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece (2018); The Public Body .03, Artpace, Sydney Australia (2018); Hooked, The Science Gallery, Kings College, London, England (2018); Travelling Gallery at 40: Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland (2018); I Was Raised on the Internet, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA (2018); Hello World – For The Post-Human Age, Mito Art Tower, Tokyo, Japan (2018); Diesel Worm, Roskilde Music Festival, Denmark (2018); In My Shoes, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition (2018); The Art of Dissonance, The Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea (2017/18); British Film and Video, Studio 55, Seoul, South Korea (2017); ARS17, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland (2017); A Goth Life: Daata Editions, Art Cologne, Germany (2017); A Non-Existent Place, JUT Art Museum, Taiwan (2017); WE ARE THE REMIX, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden (2017); I Want! I Want! Art and Technology, Arts Council Collection, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (2017); Video Encounters: inside the story, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2017); TECHSTYLE Series 1.0: Ariadne’s Thread, MILL 6, Hong Kong, China (2017); What’s in Store?, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford, England (2017); Please Sir…, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (2016); Frieze Film Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London, England (2016); The Miracle Marathon Weekend, Serpentine Galleries, London, England (2016); British Art Show 8, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, England (2016/17); British Art Show 8, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, England (2016); British Art Show 8, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland (2016); British Art Show 8, Leeds Art Gallery, England (2015/16).
Again and Again and Again was co-commissioned with HOME, Manchester and Channel 4 Random Acts in 2016.