Inspired by the Technicolor utopias of children’s television, Over The Rainbow invites the viewer into a shape-shifting world inhabited by cuddly monsters, faceless clones and gruesome pop divas. Shot entirely using green-screen the film presents a synthetic, computer generated landscape and explores a dark, comedic parody of the Faustian tale, fairy tale and horror movie genres.
Over the Rainbow was commissioned by The Banff Centre, Canada and The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. Funded by Creative Scotland
Rachel Maclean
b. 1987 Edinburgh
2005-2009 BA (hons) Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art
2007-2008 Student exchange, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“My work slips inside and outside of history and into imagined futures, creating hyperglowing, artificially saturated visions that are both nauseatingly positive and cheerfully grotesque. I am a Glasgow based artist working largely in green screen composite video and digital print, often exhibiting this alongside props, costumes and related sculpture and painting. In recent videos such as Over The Rainbow and LolCats I create synthetic spaces in which Katy Perry discuses teeth whitening with an aristocratic cat, a decapitated diva dances to hip pop and a pastel blue dog sings for The Queen.
I am the only actor or model in my work and invent a variety of characters that mime to appropriated audio and toy with age and gender. These clones embody unstable identities: conversing, interacting and shifting between cartoonish archetypes, ghostly apparitions and hollow inhuman playthings. My video attempts to unify the aesthetic of The Dollar Store, Youtube, Manga, Hieronymus Bosch and High Renaissance painting with MTV style green screen and channel changing cuts.
Inspired by the Britney Spears head shaving, I explore the moment at which unified, constructed identity throws it’s self up and tips into it’s opposite. The instant of selfconsumption, when the signature white smile of the teen pop sensation begins to hungrily gnaw at it’s own image.”