Ruth Maclennan

Biography

Ruth Maclennan examines changing relationships between places and their inhabitants in the context of geopolitical and climate upheaval. Her work includes films, video installations, photographs, performance and curatorial projects.

Maclennan’s work has been shown in exhibitions and film festivals in the US, Europe, Central Asia, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Icebreaker Dreaming, Pushkin House, London (2019); Somewhere Becoming Sea, FVU, Hull City of Culture, UK (2017); Terrapolis, French School at Athens (curated by Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Neon Gallery, Athens) (2015); The Faces They Have Vanished, Institute of Interdisciplinary Contemporary Arts (ICIA), Bath, UK (2013); and Interspecies, Art Catalyst, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK (2009).

Her films Cloudberries (2019), Hero City (2016) and Call of North (2014) were filmed in the Russian Arctic and premiered at the BFI London Film Festival. Theodosia (2013) screened at ICA, London, and in the solo exhibition The Faces They Have Vanished. Anarcadia (2011), made in the steppes of Kazakhstan, was commissioned by FVU and John Hansard Gallery and toured to Ffotogallery, Stills, Castlefield, all in the UK, and Loop, Barcelona. Her films are held in private and public collections, including the Wellcome Collection, London, and Centre Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland.

Maclennan is the Research Associate at the Scott Polar Institute, Cambridge University. She also teaches moving image at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, and the Open College of the Arts, Barnsley, UK.

She holds a BA from the Edinburgh College of Art (1995), an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London (2000) and a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London (2016). She also earned an MA in Russian and French from Trinity College, Cambridge University (1991).

Maclennan lives and works in London.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Film Platform (December 2019)