Inverleith House presented two artist films that considered the natural world and scientific enquiry as part of a short season of screenings reflecting upon the gallery’s unique position as an artistic organisation within a scientific research institution and Botanic Garden.

Screenings were accompanied by an expanded discussion between artists, curators and members of the scientific community touching on themes explored in the films. 

The artists were joined by invited speakers Isla Leaver-Yap, Project Director, Lux Scotland, and Francis McKee, Director CCA, Glasgow, for a conversation after the screening.

Event Curator: Chloe Reith

Image: Duncan Marquiss, Search Film, 2015 (Film Still). Courtesy of the artists.

About the Films

Anne-Marie Copestake  
Back As Front, Inside As Out, Part One.

(2015, 25 minutes)

Holography as a theory, written in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, described how a three-dimensional image of information (as patterns encoded in a beam of light) could be stored on a photographic plate. This required a coherent light source, which was eventually provided by lasers twenty years later as technology advanced. Copestake’s film considers this early period as holography developed as an artist’s medium, foregrounding experimentation and pursuit through rigorous actions, optimism, exploration and discovery. 

Duncan Marquiss

Search Film

(2015, HD, 22 minutes)

Search Film follows the artist's father, the biologist Dr. Mick Marquiss as he tracks goshawks, an elusive bird of prey, in rural north east Scotland. The film expands into a broader conversation on the nature of searching in a variety of contexts, comparing innate foraging behaviour with shopping and browsing databases.