Alison piper - FILMMAKER & visual artist.
I make films about the material politics of land, territory and sovereignty.
My art practice is rooted in 8mm and 16mm film animation. I use found and gathered materials, including earth, salt, plant matter and traces from damaged or contested places to make images that are physically embedded in the film surface. Through hand-processing, contact printing and projection, these materials become moving landscapes, carrying stories of conflict, extraction, survival and repair.
My narrative short films Duck Daze (Screen Scotland commission 2018) and Free Period (2017), have broadcast on BBC Scotland and picked up awards at film festivals in the UK and internationally.
I am EIFF Talent Lab 2019 alumni. I’ve been commissioned to make films and live performance visuals by Edinburgh International Book Festival, Shetland Arts, and by award-winning Folk duo ‘Heal & Harrow’. My moving image work ‘Minn Beach’ was exhibited at the 2022 RSA Annual exhibition in Edinburgh.
In 2021 I graduated with distinction from the Glasgow School of Art (MLitt Fine Art Practice). I was the inaugural recipient of GSA’s Niamh Forbes Postgraduate Fine Art Scholarship, and in addition, I received academic grants from the South Square Trust, the Glasgow Educational and Marshall Trust, and the Grace Wyndham Goldie BBC Trust.