Rachel Maclean / Spite Your Face
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Commissioned for the Venice Biennale in 2017, Rachel Maclean’s Spite Your Face returns to Scotland at Talbot Rice Gallery for its UK premiere.
Referencing the Italian folk-tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, ‘Spite Your Face’ (2017) advances a powerful social critique, exploring underlying fears and desires that characterise the contemporary zeitgeist. Set across two worlds – with a glittering, materialistic and celebrity-obsessed upper world, and a dark, dank and impoverished lower world – the lure of wealth and adoration entices a destitute young boy into the shimmering riches of the kingdom above. Written in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, and during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the story is steeped in the political flux and uncertainty of our time. Shown as a perpetual 37-minute loop with no definitive beginning or end, ‘Spite Your Face’ raises issues including the abuse of patriarchal power, capitalist deception, exploitation and the destructive trappings of wealth and fame, all in Maclean’s typically direct and acerbic style.
Following the monumental staging of the work for Scotland + Venice in the deconsecrated Chiesa di Santa Caterina in Venice, Spite Your Face is reframed for the Georgian Gallery of Talbot Rice. The room’s iconic grand interior, reminiscent of the opulent upper world depicted in the work, is augmented with a navy carpet, gold fabric and luxurious cushions. Viewers are invited to sit, lie and reflect in the light of the monolithic portrait-format screen.
Biography
Rachel Maclean graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA in Drawing and Painting in 2009. Her work came to public attention in New Contemporaries later that year and she went on to exhibit extensively in the UK and internationally. Major exhibitions include Feed Me (2015) in British Art Show 8, and Wot u :-) about? at HOME, Manchester and Tate Britain, (2016-17). In 2013 Maclean won the Margaret Tait Award and has twice been shortlisted for the prestigious Jarman Award.
Following the exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery, ‘Spite Your Face’ will be shown at Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (31 May–16 September 2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London (20 September–6 December 2018); Chapter, Cardiff (20 October 2018–20 January 2019). Her work is in major collections including the National Galleries of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh who acquired ‘Spite Your Face’ on the occasion of the exhibition in Venice. Born 1987 in Edinburgh, she now lives and works in Glasgow.
Exhibition Guide
Published on the occasion of 'Spite Your Face' at Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh. Edited by Tessa Giblin.
Interview between Rachel Maclean and Stuart Fallon is available to view below, or download free of charge.
A large print guide is also available to download.
Rachel Maclean 'Spite Your Face' 2017
Rachel Maclean’s ‘Spite Your Face’ (2017) advances a powerful social critique, exploring underlying fears and desires that characterise the contemporary zeitgeist. Set across two worlds – with a glittering, materialistic and celebrity-obsessed upper world, and a dark, dank and impoverished lower world – the lure of wealth and adoration entices a destitute young boy into the shimmering riches of
the kingdom above. Shown as a perpetual 37-minute loop with no de nitive beginning or end, ‘Spite Your Face’ references the classic Italian folk-tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, and raises issues including the abuse of patriarchal power, capitalist deception and the destructive trappings of wealth and fame.
Originally made for Chiesa di Santa Caterina in Venice, the work has been reframed within the iconic interior of the Georgian Gallery. Viewers are invited to enter the space through the gold curtain and sit, lie and re ect in the light of the monumental screen.
‘Spite Your Face’ (2017) was commissioned and curated for Scotland + Venice by Alchemy Film and Arts, in partnership with Talbot Rice Gallery and the University of Edinburgh. It was rst shown at the 57th Biennale di Venezia in Chiesa di Santa Caterina, Venice. Additional support provided by Edinburgh College of Art, Outset Scotland and the Saltire Society of Scotland.
Spite Your Face at Talbot Rice Gallery is curated by Stuart Fallon. Exhibition production design by Tommy Stuart.
Scotland + Venice is a partnership between Creative Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Council Scotland.
Rachel Maclean, interview with Stuart Fallon, February 2018.
SF: Can you introduce ‘Spite Your Face’ and give an idea of what visitors will encounter when they come and see the work at Talbot Rice Gallery.
RM: ‘Spite Your Face’ is a distorted rags to riches tale that follows Pic, a Pinocchio-like character as he moves between a dystopian underworld and a glittering, privileged over- world. The film plays on a continuous loop with no intended beginning or end. It is shot entirely against green-screen and I play all the parts, donning elaborate prosthetics, make-up and costume.
SF: You made the work a year ago and since then some of the issues addressed in the piece, namely the abuse and exploitation of patriarchal power, have exploded into public consciousness and currently dominate social and political discourse. How differently do you feel these issues will resonate through the work when viewed now?
RM: I think it’s interesting how the reading of a work shifts due to its political context. I wrote the film shortly after the EU Referendum and Donald Trump’s ascendancy to US President, and was responding, amongst other things, to a resurgence and tolerance of old-school patriarchs in the public eye. Now showing the film again, post the Harvey Weinstein scandal and in the context of the #MeToo movement, I don’t think the meaning of the film has changed, but I think certain aspects of it are highlighted. The female character in the film is slippery, moving between a male fantasy, mother/Virgin Mary and lover figure, into a rape victim and then a journalist or critic who pulls the rug out from beneath the then abusive charlatan Pic. Depending what direction you watch the film in she gradually loses or gains her power in a world dominated by men (who are not really men, they are me, a woman masquerading as a man). We are living through an interesting moment. The increased currency that feminism and feminists have in the popular eye is very hopeful. But the reaction against feminist thought and activism is simultaneously powerful and damaging. In my hopeful moments, I think that this backlash is just the final pathetic death throes of the patriarchy. In my less hopeful moments, I think it is a sign of how far we still have to go.
SF: ‘Spite Your Face’ was made for the deconsecrated Chiesa di Santa Caterina in Venice where it was first shown, with elements of the church featuring in the video. For the Edinburgh exhibition it has been reframed for the Georgian interior of Talbot Rice Gallery. How do you think the work will play out in this new setting? And how does it feel to show within the institution where you studied?
RM: I’m so excited about showing at Talbot Rice Gallery. Where Santa Caterina in Venice lent ‘Spite Your Face’ a religious aura, the Georgian Gallery installation pulls out the themes of decadence and luxury. It feels like it was made for the work. I have been visiting Talbot Rice since I was a teenager and have seen so many inspiring exhibitions here. It feels surreal to be showing here rather than visiting. Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art really feel like home for me, I met lots of my best friends at art college and it’s where I got started as an artist. Edinburgh is a unique and inspiring city and I’m privileged to be able to show my work in the heart of it.
SF: The experience of showing at the Venice Biennale put the work and your practice on an international stage, now it is returning to Scotland before going to Dublin, London and Cardiff. Can you speak about the idea of national and international ‘representation’?
RM: I’ve been asked a lot of questions about representation over the course of the Biennale and am still not quite sure how to answer them. It is a huge honour to be chosen to represent your country and to have the opportunity to show work internationally. However, the idea of representation is quite an abstract one. I try and address current themes in my work in a way which is accessible but not easy or straightforwardly palatable. I hope that audiences in Scotland will see issues and ideas that are important to them represented in the film, but at the same time, you are only ever portraying a very small fragment of art, culture and opinion in your work and a large part of the legacy of artworks is the questions they bring up in the viewer, which are always wider and richer than an artist’s personal intentions.
SF: Your choice of media, coupled with the adoption and adaptation of a familiar fairytale narrative allows you to reach audiences and explore subject areas that might not otherwise be possible with such directness and impact. How do these decisions strengthen the political power of your work?
RM: I try to make work that doesn’t rely too heavily on an understanding of niche reference points for it to be understood. I am fascinated by fairytales because they are so familiar, at the same time as constantly morphing and changing to adapt to different historical and political contexts. Despite lots of fairytales having authors, Carlo Collodi for example, they spring out of a much longer lineage and seem to belong to a very recognisable, hybrid and cross-cultural need to understand our existence through storytelling. I intend for my films to make use of well-known narratives, but mess with them a bit, making them difficult, complex and without satisfactory conclusions.
SF: The digital world in which you operate is rapidly developing and advancing, opening up a host of new tools and possibilities at your disposal. How do you keep up with this and what impact does it have on your practice?
RM: I love post-production and the potential of digital technologies. Green screen is amazing for allowing you to escape the normal constraints of filmmaking, like the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to build even one of the backdrops in ‘Spite Your Face’ as a set. It means that on relatively small budgets you can create immersive and convincing environments where you have total control over composition and colour. I studied painting, so I think this ability to imagine and set out the world you want to depict with specific attention to the details of texture, sharpness/softness and light is really important. I want every still from the film to feel considered in the way a painting might be. I intend for the work to be visually seductive. I think the more you can suck in an audience and take them with you, the more room you have to drop in disruptive themes or moments without losing their will to keep watching. One of the main challenges you have as a video artist is that the audience have total freedom to enter and leave the work as they please. It doesn’t always work, but I try very hard to make work that can hold your attention. I am really interested in working with Virtual Reality for this reason, it takes you completely into another world, which can be simultaneously captivating and terrifying. I’m scoping out some possibilities for working with it at the moment.
SF: You are currently working on a new commission for the BBC around the centenary of women’s suffrage. What can you tell us about that project? I understand that you are working with actors for the first time in your work. How does this affect the process?
RM: Yes, I’m working on a new commission called ‘Make Me Up’, which I’ve just finished shooting. I’m really excited about it. It is set in an adapted St Peter’s Seminary (Cardross) and follows a congregation of women who are both participants and prisoners in a bizarre, art historical reality TV style competition. It’s Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation meets Ru Paul’s Drag Race. It has been fantastic working with actors. I am lucky to have worked with a hugely talented cast who brought so much energy, life and passion to the film. I’m equally lucky to be working with producers Hopscotch and NVA, as well as 14-18 Now. The film will have various incarnations, 60-minutes on the BBC, as a longer cinema screening and also as a shorter gallery edit. I like the idea of it sitting between film, TV and video art and being versatile to different contexts. I think that there is something creative about being between different genres and formats, rather than fitting strictly within them. It gives you more licence to break/ not know the rules and I like the feeling that you are always learning from other worlds that aren’t wholly familiar. It’s been a bit of a learning curve writing a longer script for ‘Make Me Up’, but I’ve found the challenge really fruitful and I’m very excited to show it later this year.
