Descants

Descants is a new moving image work by artists Anne-Marie Copestake, Emmie McLuskey and Duncan Marquiss that will be presented at a special one-off screening. Commissioned in 2021 and filmed during Covid lockdowns and restrictions, the work is an informal community portrait that maps conversations between artists who participated in Glasgow International’s 2021 festival programme. 

Taking its cue from Anne-Marie’s work Trigger Tonic 1999, viewers are guided through a series of unrehearsed encounters between people, each interaction an informal conversation about whatever felt important at the time. The artists’ approached the commission with simple parameters for each conversation; they would try to bring together people who didn’t know each other and record for thirty minutes, or as long as needed, attempting to talk to everyone participating in the festival programme – including those who don’t live in Glasgow, and those who were unable to show their work due to the pandemic. 

Descants is a record of local history as it unfolded, revealing individual and collective values and desires, and showing something of what it was to be an artist working at that time.