Duncan Marquiss - The Clay Wall

22 September – 27 October 2007, The Changing Room, Stirling

The Changing Room is delighted to present Duncan Marquiss’ first solo exhibition in Scotland and most ambitious project to date.

At the centre of the exhibition is a short film, The Clay Wall, produced through the Scottish Arts Council/Scottish Screen Artist Film and Video Awards, and exhibited alongside new drawings and collages. The Clay Wall is the first video work in which Marquiss has worked with a crew and actors.  It combines several aspects of his previous videos, including the use of landscape and music in cinema and the portrayal of different kinds of ecstatic behaviour.

The film was shot in and around the town of Aboyne and Torphins in Aberdeenshire where he grew up.  Ideas for the film developed whilst reading about the trial of a coven of witches in Torphins in 1596 that convened nearby on Craiglash Hill.  During Marquiss’ adolescence this was the kind of place where teenagers would go to socialise away from their parents and the authorities. 

A graduate from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2005, Marquiss (born 1979) was the youngest artist selected for Zenomap, representing Scotland at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. During November 2006 and March 2007 he was artist-in-residence in the town of Scicli, Sicily, through the ISIDEM programme.

Recent exhibitions include Five Figure Position, Peter Kilchmann, Zurich and doggerfisher, Edinburgh, 2006; Where the Wild Things Are, DCA, Dundee; The Metal Bridge, Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow and Solitude, Upstairs Berlin, Berlin,all 2006.

His first solo show was at Dicksmith Gallery, London in 2004, with whom he has a solo exhibition this November and shows work at Frieze Art Fair in October.

The Clay Wall is a High Definition Video transferred to DVD. Running time 11 minutes. Produced by Broken Spectre. All images courtesy of the artist and the Dicksmith Gallery.

Exhibition supported by Scottish Arts Council.  Artists Film & Video production supported by The National Lottery through Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen.