Single channel, HD video, Colour, Sound, Music
A Whole New World visualises the fantastical ruins of a fallen empire. Combining grand narrative with cheap product placement, the work explores themes related to British imperial history and national identity. Shot entirely using green-screen, the film presents a computer-generated landscape littered with fallen statues and the distressed paraphernalia of a bygone age. Narrated by a statuesque Britannia Goddess, the narrative adapts a variety of existing tales. Including St. George and The Dragon and Tarzan. The action frequently shifts genre. Moving from all singing, all dancing musical score to dry political debate, sedate period drama to battlefield conflict. Maclean plays all the characters in the work, miming to audio in variety of languages and bedecked in an elaborate combination of prosthetic make-up, historical costume and Union Jack encrusted tourist tat.
Rachel Maclean won Glasgow Film Festivals Margaret Tait Award in 2013. She recently had a successful solo exhibition Wot u 🙂 about? at HOME, Manchester (2016) and also at Tate Britain in running until April 2017. Maclean also had major screenings of her new film commision It’s What’s Inside That Counts made in collaboration with HOME Manchester, Tate Britain and Frieze Film. Maclean’s work has been internationally recognised: exhibiting at the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, TECHSTYLE Series 1.0: Ariadne’s Thread MILL 6 Hong Kong and Artpace San Antonio. Maclean is now looking forward to representing Scotland at the at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Scotland+Venice 2017, commissioned and curated by Alchemy Film and Arts, based in Hawick, in partnership with Talbot Rice Gallery and the University of Edinburgh.
Last update 25th April, 2017.