Kevin Reid & Rachel MacLean @ Market Gallery

Article by Rosamund West | 05 Feb 2010

Kevin Reid, founder of GANGHUT, is going solo for the first time in years. Yes, the man who began that unique art collective, based around notions of collaboration, inclusiveness, and fundamentally having each other’s backs, has embarked on a project alone, venturing onto the mean streets of Glasgow’s East End armed only with a video camera and some horror-movie make-up.

The results of his foray can be seen at the Market Gallery’s Studio Project 20, running alongside Rachel MacLean’s Studio Project 21, both film-based residencies timed to coincide with the Glasgow Film Festival. Reid has paid tribute to his childhood obsession with B-grade horror movies by investigating the prosthetics and make-up used to create the scariness in the genre with the intention of using them to go beyond scariness. A noble aim indeed. He has then made films in the streets of Dennistoun, with a cast of extras provided by random passers by.

MacLean’s residency sees her constructing a display case for herself, a kitsch tableau covering the windows of the Market’s glass front including cut-out heads through which passers-by can peer to see the artist engaged in filming herself, constructing a video work in a variety of dressed-up guises. Those familiar with her work will understand what this means. Those who are not should clearly be paying more attention to The Skinny Showcase, and visit www.rachelmaclean.com to see what we mean. This particular work investigates the banana through Western colonialist eyes. The results of both endeavors can be seen being made and displayed in the gallery throughout February and look set to be truly unmissable. [Rosamund West]

http://www.marketgallery.org.uk