Video Installation

Road Works, detail;
Sandbags 1
Hidden Door Festival 2015,
Edinburgh
This installation at Hidden Door Festival in 2015, presented footage of road workers digging into the ground, late at night, mapped onto a still life of sandbags slumped on the floor of the gallery
The intention of the work is duplicitous: both cynical and celebratory
Laughing, and loving being observed and appreciated, the workmen represent a homage to camaraderie, and grafting for a living; surviving; learning, persevering.
Meanwhile the sand bags become totemic, shamanistic; portals to an unreal world of mysterious work.
With four workmen endlessly digging their way out of the sand bags, the piece simultaneously offers a sense of the bizarre. With a play on the idea of 'digging holes' ('if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging'), it takes a humorous look at the never ending process of maintaining and improving services and roads as a metaphor for life’s inherent struggle; and the futility or foolishness therein.
This piece was made with the permission and input of the workers.