Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
This work is based on performance artist Vito Acconci's 'Walk Over', 1973, a video work in which Acconci paces the length of a corridor while talking to an unseen ex-lover. 'Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches)' similarly features a young man approaching and walking away from a front-on camera that has been positioned as an intercom or 'peep hole' might be in the door of a residential flat. The young man is performed by the MC, known as Plan B (679 Recordings), with whom Forsyth and Pollard worked closely.
The performer, Plan B frequently moves incredibly close to the camera - allowing the viewer extreme close-ups of his mouth as he taunts his unseen lover with deeply personal jibes, before nonchalantly walking away, whistling and smoking.
Since the mid 1990s, Forsyth and Pollard have become known for re-enacting a diverse range of cultural and art historical events and documents. Through stylistic and aesthetic reference to contemporary urban music videos, the artists seem to be making reference to the fact that, as an audience, we have become used to being directly addressed through screen images. As Plan B articulates very early on in the film, 'I know you like to watch'.
Helen Loughlan
- Artwork Details: running time: 24 minutes
- Edition: Ed 3 of 8
- Material description: digital video file and DVD
- Credit line: © the artists. Courtesy the artists and Kate MacGarry, London.
- Theme:
- Medium: Film and Audio Visual
- Accession number: ACC12/2008