Bloody Lawyers

The voice, distorted, drawls, is the speaker drunk? There is a sense of outrage underlying the slightly-accented baritone. He's protesting that honesty is essential, and the world is full of bloody lawyers. He quotes Shakespeare, but we are not convinced. There is something sinister about him; this is not a man you would want to meet or cross.

still from Myles Painter's  Grander Designs; view clip here

Our sense of unease is heightened by the fact we cannot see the speaker or his audience. We are staring at a recently-abandoned room where a tv monitor is playing, a windowless room for interviews or interrogations. The screen is small and the images unclear - an empty house or a series of abstract geometrical shapes; there are no people. We seem to be in a world where living things have vanished and only ghosts remain.

Back in the real world... This is art. We are watching a video installation by the artist Myles Painter and the voice is mine. And as with much conceptual art, meaning hovers between the creator's vision and the viewer's response, and the more time and thought the viewer gives to the artefact, the greater is the reward. It's too late for you to go and see it, however, and the video has not yet surfaced on Myles's website. To give you a flavour, there is a clip on my website - click the link under the image to see it.