Francis Alÿs - Nightwatch (2004) & Seven Walks (2005)
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Belgian artist Francis Alÿs collaborated with the National Portrait Gallery to create a piece generated by the gallery's state-of-the-art internal CCTV system.
Alÿs released a fox, called Bandit, into the deserted gallery at night. Seen from the high viewpoint of the security cameras, the fox looks a little puzzled among all the paintings of the great and the good. Like the guards, the fox is out of context; an intruder, observed dispassionately.
This rip includes two videos from his 2005 pieces "Seven Walks" in London. This video shows the artist rattling a stick along railings of the crescents in Regents Park. This may not sound promising but as this lone figure wanders at variance with the surrounding buildings, the effect is subtly disturbing.
Karagarga; Nightwatch and Seven Walks. Demonoid; Nightwatch and Seven Walks.
at 2:53 PM