< back    
     
 

Spectacle
2013-14
HD video with stereo sound 
9:40 min

Narration by Syma Tariq


 
     
 

Spectacle uses voice and image to describes a scenario where a large number of people gather, move together and enact their right to protest. Within the video both the place of the demonstration and the demands of the crowds remain ambiguous. Neither the narrator’s descriptions nor the video of the crowds seem to quite match, at times the text and image overlap while at other times they seem to exist in conflict with each other, thus there is a tension created between  what we see and what we are told we are seeing. Throughout the video people are filmed obsessively documenting an event, which we presume is the heart of the ‘spectacle’. Our position within this event – looking out – creates a confrontation of gazes and camera lenses that aims to provoke questions of identification and representation in relation to political demonstration within the public sphere.