Rachel Maclean

Rachel Maclean


in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Rachel Maclean is a multi-media artist born in 1987 in Edinburgh. Using film and photography, she creates outlandish characters and fantasy worlds which she uses to delve into politics, society and identity.

Wearing colourful costumes and make-up, Maclean takes on every role in her films herself. She uses computer technology to generate her locations, and borrows audio from television and cinema to construct narratives with a comedic touch.

Maclean lives and works in Glasgow.

Movies for Rachel Maclean...

Kill Your TV: Jim Moir’s Weird World of Video Art
Title: Kill Your TV: Jim Moir’s Weird World of Video Art
Released: November 24, 2019
Type: Movie
Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) explores Video Art, revealing how different generations ‘hacked’ the tools of television to pioneer new ways of creating art that can be beautiful, bewildering and wildly experimental.
bee
Make Me Up
Title: Make Me Up
Released: October 12, 2018
Type: Movie
Siri wakes to find herself trapped inside a brutalist candy-coloured dreamhouse. Despite the cutesy decor, the place is far from benign, and she and her inmates are encouraged to compete for survival while being watched over by surveillance cameras, 24/7. Presiding over the group is an authoritarian diva who speaks entirely with the voice of Kenneth Clark from the 1960s BBC series Civilisation. As she forces the women to go head-to-head in a series of demeaning tasks, Siri, with the help of fellow inmate Alexa, starts subverting the rules and soon reveals the sinister truth that underpins their world.
bee
Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime
Title: Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime
Character: Herself
Released: June 14, 2017
Type: Movie
Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.
bee
Spite Your Face
Title: Spite Your Face
Released: May 13, 2017
Type: Movie
Simultaneously sumptuous and gorgeous, garish and grim, this is a re-working of Pinocchio for the neo-liberal era. Rachel Maclean’s dark fairytale, which represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale 2017, depicts a brash and baroque binary world of poverty and riches where the prospect of easy wealth tempts even good boys like Pic into bad ways. But if everyone believes the lie, what’s the problem?
bee
Again and Again and Again
Title: Again and Again and Again
Released: October 10, 2016
Type: Movie
A supersaturated satire with a look into the land of data-addicted monk-like figures and dance-crazed rabbits.
bee
Feed Me
Title: Feed Me
Released: October 8, 2015
Type: Movie
Feed Me is a larger than life fairy tale, part TV talent show, part thriller, video game in which Maclean plays all the parts
bee
Eyes To Me
Title: Eyes To Me
Character: Sophie
Released: January 1, 2014
Type: Movie
Sophie goes on a killing spree in a candy-coloured world.
bee
Germs
Title: Germs
Character: Various
Released: April 3, 2013
Type: Movie
In Germs, female stereotypes, pseudoscience and promised happiness clash with violent consequences.
bee
Germs
Title: Germs
Released: April 3, 2013
Type: Movie
In Germs, female stereotypes, pseudoscience and promised happiness clash with violent consequences.
bee
Over The Rainbow
Title: Over The Rainbow
Released: January 1, 2013
Type: Movie
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 environment, part toy model, part computer generated landscape, which explores a dark, comedic parody of the Faustian tale, video game and horror movie genres.
bee
The Lion and the Unicorn
Title: The Lion and the Unicorn
Character: The Queen / English lion / Scottish unicorn
Released: January 1, 2012
Type: Movie
“The Lion and The Unicorn” is a short film inspired by the heraldic symbols found on the Royal Coat of Arms of The United Kingdom, the lion (representing England) and the unicorn (representing Scotland). The piece uses representations of both alliance and opposition to explore national identity within the context of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.