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Running Time: Artist Films in Scotland from 1960 to now

Three of my collaborative video works, made with John Beagles, were included in this survey exhibition, dedicated to Scottish artist films, that took place at the Dean Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. The exhibition featured a selection of over one hundred film and video works by over sixty artists, created in the past fifty years. This included artists such as Douglas Gordon, Margaret Tait, Boyle Family, Eduardo Paolozzi, David Shrigley and Luke Fowler. The works I exhibited were "Two Fine Examples of British Dentistry' (2008), "Trilogy" (2003) and "We Are The People" (2000). Being including in a significant and unique survey exhibition of Scottish artists film and video marked an important point in my career and allowed my work to be contextualised within a wider historical context. In particular this meant that my work was curated into two thematic strands within the overall exhibition and these focussed upon aspects of narrative form, identity and the performed self under the headings of ‘Drama and Suspense’ and ‘Portraits in Action’. These thematic strands were clearly connected to my longstanding research interests and particularly relevant to the three works that were selected for the exhibition. My interest in how video or film can be used to explore mainstream cinematic narrative conventions and how this might be investigated through performance to camera is a central element of my collaborative practice. All of these works featured us in costume and performing highly stylized versions of well-known figures from the popular imagination, such as the lone political assassin or the decadent artist.