Touch and Go II

Cristina Lucas.

I shot the outside of this building a few weeks ago, so it was cool to get inside. What you can't see is the video playing. When creating this piece, Cristina Lucas invited members of the public to come and be actors in a video she was making as part of this idea. Although the whole thing (the idea, the location, the execution) is thought provoking for the reasons I referred to in my words that accompanied the shot of the outside, the video is a captivating piece of skill and humour. She gets people to pose as passers by just hurling stones, people arrive in taxis and throw stones, at one point a guy appears in the window opposite with a shot gun and shoots out a pane of glass. The delight on the faces of the participants is great - its as though they've always wanted to engage in an act of mindless vandalism - and here's their chance. Except its far from mindless and far from vandalism.

I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the state of the interior is deliberate. The columns are surely freshly painted and the glass on the floor was put there on purpose.

Its a great, great thing. I'm often not keen on video installations as art, but there always exceptions and this is one.