If you haven’t already noticed the AGK is back and this time with a vengeance. It is our annual get together with our community kind of like a general meeting but with artist videos and karaoke instead. The aim of the AGK is to promote and highlight video and performance and hopefully increase peoples’ networks. It also gives opportunities for artists to make and display work within an unconventional setting, something we at YNY are very passionate about.
This year as part of our campaign to encourage people to submit a video we are releasing snippets from our past winners alongside info on what they are up to now. If you are lucky to win the best video prize at the AGK we will award you £300, its up to you what you spend it on.
Our first ever AGK winner was Glasgow based visual artist Rachel Maclean in 2010. Rachel won the AGK with I’m Your Biggest Fan a reinterpretation of ‘Lady Gaga’s’ hit ‘Paparazzi’ which sucked the viewer into a morphing sugary toy town exploring sexual perversion. Since then Rachel has worked with Visual Effects Research Lab at Duncan of Jordanstone, completed a 6 month residency at the Banff Centre, Canada, had her first solo show at GENERATORprojects and is this year’s recipient of the Margait Tait Award, BRAVO!
Currently Rachel is showing at Edinburgh Printmakers as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival here is what her show is about;
‘I HEART SCOTLAND’ is a solo show by Rachel Maclean, exploring Scottish national identity and it’s founding mythologies. Presenting a body of film and print work, the exhibition examines the nation’s romantic histories through the lens of contemporary political debate, creating a complex and surreal vision of modern Scotland. Responding to the upcoming Referendum on Scottish Independence in 2014, the show explores a sense of both power and absurdity within representations of Scottish and British national pride.
image courtesy of Rachel Maclean and Edinburgh Printmakers
I HEART SCOTLAND runs until the 7th of September at the Edinburgh Printmakers we hope you can make it along.
You can view her full winning video here
The deadline for submissions is 14th of October 3013
The AGK will be part of NEoN this year and will be held in Dundee on the 9th of November (location to be confirmed).
Read Ben’s article in the Summer 2013 edition of YNY about her Collective show Over The Rainbow.
Catch up with Rachel on here and here.
Other links you might like
‘Rachel Maclean: GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!
‘Where I Make: Rachel Maclean’
‘Rachel Maclean wins Margaret Tait Award’
‘Rachel Maclean Interview: Going Bananas’
‘5 Questions for: Rachel Maclean’
‘Artist Review ONE: Rachel Maclean’
Next up Joe Howe and Lachlan Rattray, our 2011 winners…