The Argyll Beacon Film Commission was awarded in November 2021 to the Scotland-based artists Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott. The Commission is for a new moving image work connected to Scotland’s rainforests, the theme of the Argyll Beacon and the focus of Cove Park’s partnership with Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust (Act).

This research and production residency will allow Rachel and Alison to visit key sites of interest in Argyll, such as Kilmun Arboretum on Cowal Peninsula, the Argyll Forest Park, and the Cormonachan Community Woodland by Loch Goil. The new work developed by the artists will premiere at our final Climate Café in May 2022 (date and location to be confirmed).

Rachel’s practice encompasses film, sculpture and writing. Her work is concerned with how spaces are designed, experienced, and how we think about them. Her filmmaking practice is rooted in conversation and relationship building, and in much of her work she looks to make visible the mechanisms of filmmaking, making her own presence felt in the recording. Alison is an artist, writer and art-worker. Her work is led by research methodologies with performative, written and collaborative practices as an important aspect of the process of production. She is a former resident of Cove Park and took part in our 2021 programme.

Image: Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, documentation from a research mini-residency at RSPB Fosinard, 2019.