OPINION

Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro, 2008 ‘Scotland’s i lmmaking has felt stil ed and stilted in recent years’

GAIL TOLLEY

Scotland’s visual artists are creating some fascinating lm and moving image work. So, can our lm industry learn a thing or two?

L ooking back at the artists and work that have shaped Scotland’s visual art scene in recent years, one thing stands out: the rich body of moving-image work. Douglas Gordon, Luke Fowler, Torsten Lauschmann and Rachel Maclean are proof of the high quality and diverse i lm-based art being made here. This is backed up further by the success of Glasgow Film Festival’s Margaret Tait Award, which each year awards £10,000 to an artist working in i lm, and the recent announcement that LUX, the UK-wide artist i lm body, will be opening a Glasgow ofi ce this spring.

In a parallel universe this would have spilled out beyond the gallery and into wider i lm culture. Bright young things would be grabbing cameras and experimenting with everything the medium has to offer, perhaps recalling periods of creativity like 1960s Paris or Austin in the 90s. This might sound like a romanticised idea of the way i lms are made, but Glasgow’s indie music and contemporary art scene have gone through similar prolii c periods.

In contrast, Scotland’s i lmmaking has felt stil ed and stilted in recent years. There have been some notable success stories, but these appear to sporadically pop up rather than emerge from a fertile community. So why, if the talent and potential is so obviously here, has Scotland enjoyed nowhere near the success in i lmmaking that it has in visual art? Many people would point to structural issues. Feature i lmmaking often requires a large amount of money, and relies on assembling an experienced technical crew.

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Widespread cinema distribution is also a challenge and the competition (Hollywood) is backed by multi- million-pound marketing campaigns. Others will l ag up Scotland’s lack of a i lm studio, and the recent announcement that Pinewood is to open a studio in Cardiff is a reminder of what we lack north of the border. But does all that explain the absence of a DIY scene, especially at a time when i lmmaking equipment is more accessible than ever? And when the internet offers a worldwide platform?

Commentators have tried to pinpoint the recipe that has created Glasgow’s artistic success in the last 25 years. One key ingredient appears to be the environmental art course at the School of Art; established in the mid 80s, it wasn’t tied to one medium, and attracted a group of aspiring artists keen to rethink contemporary art with alumni including Douglas Gordon as well as Christine Borland and Martin Boyce. Famously, Gordon said that on the course, he learned  ‘to sing. Not how to sing but simply, to sing’, hinting at both the sense of community, and the unabashed outlook that dei ned the school at the time. Can we take inspiration from this to give Scotland’s i lmmaking the boost it needs? Perhaps a little injection of money aimed at the grassroots and an encouragement to take risks could give rise to a culture that, over time, will feed the wider industry. Trying to orchestrate artistic success is a nebulous affair, but as Steve McQueen and his recent Oscar win suggest, i lmmakers can learn a thing or two from their friends in the galleries.

Gail Tolley is The List’s editor and i lm editor.