Fisun Güner
, May 1st, 2021 08:18
With a new solo show opening at Edinburgh's Jupiter Artland in a week, Rachel Maclean talks to Fisun Güner about film-making, fairytales, and looking forward
The imagery is often violent – tongues get cut out, noses yanked off, human limbs cannibalised. The world of Scottish artist Rachel Maclean is a Grand Guignol horror show, but the horror comes encased in a big, gooey powder-pink meringue. Her films capture something of the heightened aesthetics of My Little Pony, but the appropriation and hybridity of pop-visual cultures is far-ranging, from Disney to video games, pop videos and stage musicals, social media, and even – especially when she dwells on Scottish identity – the 18th and 19th century political satires of Hogarth and Cruickshank. And just as we’re getting hopelessly lost in these pimped-up surreal fantasias, the presence of emojis and hearts pull us into an instantly recognisable online world.