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| Denkmal, Kate Davis, 2013, video still from 29 minute video installation Photo: Kate Davis |
New Zealand-born Davis will receive a £10,000 commission to create a new piece of work, and the opportunity to present this work at Glasgow Film Festival in February 2017. The award - founded in 2010 - aims to provide a high-profile platform for the selected artist to exhibit their work and engage with a wider audience. The award is given to an experimental Scottish or Scotland-based artist who has established a significant body of work within film and moving image over the past 3 to 10 years and is at the cusp of a major impact on the sector.
Davis' work reconsiders what certain histories could look, sound and feel like. This has often involved responding to the aesthetic and political ambiguities of specific art works and their reception, or re-evaluating historical moments that have been marginalised.
She said: "Working with the moving image has become an increasingly important part of my practice in recent years and the Margaret Tait Award will be invaluable in enabling me to realise my most ambitious and experimental moving image work to date.
"Inspired by the ways in which Margaret Tait’s films invite us to contemplate fundamental emotions and everyday activities that are often overlooked, I propose to investigate how the essential, but largely invisible and unpaid, processes we employ to care for others and ourselves can inform both the subject of my film and the way it is made."
The panel said: "Although the proposals from all five short-listed artists were extremely strong and well-considered, the panel agreed that Davis’ proposal clearly demonstrated how the award would support a step change in her practice.
"From the ambition and tenacity of her proposal, it was clear to the panel that this is the right moment in Davis’ career to receive the award. The panel have complete confidence that Davis will deliver an innovative and compelling moving image work, and are excited to see how the project evolves before its premiere at Glasgow Film Festival in 2017."
