Relax, it’s not real

Relax… none of this is real.

RACHEL MACLEAN is an acclaimed visual artist and avant-garde filmmaker. DUCK is her first exploration into deepfake. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Sean Connery, DUCK exists in a world of artifice, subterfuge and intrigue, referencing classic Hollywood, video games, film noir, and sci-fi to raise compelling questions about truth and power. This collection presents 20 short segments, each a reinterpretation of content from DUCK.

The thematic thread that runs through DUCK is one of socio-political conspiracy, namely, that surrounding JFK, Marilyn Monroe and UFOs. The fragmentation of the narrative into 20 distinct segments mirrors the conceptual idea inherent in conspiracy theories and conspiratorial theorising more generally - that of taking distinct pieces of information (some factual, some not so much) and synthesising them into a new ‘reality’ or myth.