Michelle Deignan

Unmaking or Redoing
Single channel digital video, 11 mins 46 secs, 2005–2007.

'Unmaking or Redoing' follows the fluctuating circumstances around the making and exhibiting of an artwork. It tells the story of the artist being photographed by the police whilst innocently walking down a street in east London. Referencing a "making of" style documentary video, the artist describes this event through a combination of voice over and filmed interactions between her and an actor. She tells us that she has cast this actor as a tour guide for a performance, which uses the very same story of the police photograph as its subject. Then the actor becomes the narrator for the second part of the film. He describes further developments on the police photograph of her and the 7/7 bombings in London. As the bombings alter the socio-polictical context the performance is cancelled. The artist responds by taking the film out of London and onto a bus tour around the outskirts of Vienna. This is to view the re-incarnation of the artwork into billboard images.

click on images for QuickTime movie of 'Unmaking or Redoing'. file size: 26 mb.

"The video centres around one evening where Deignan was photographed by the police, mistaken as someone exiting the London Action Resource Centre in East London; the police had been staking out this venue as the site of a suspected clandestine meeting. The video itself, though, provides only a verbal description of the event, as well as footage of rehearsals for a walking tour inspired by that night, before spiraling out to become a meditation on police surveillance in London, as well as a 'making of' documentary for a photographic artwork exhibited on the streets of Vienna. Like a politicized take on Rob Reiner's documentation of a nonexistent band in Spinal Tap (1984), Unmaking or Redoing circles around and shoots out from a central event which is not present. What remains is a series of traces, reconstructions, and remembered accounts that have hesitantly huddled together to form this twelve-minute video essay. As a parting shot, it takes on the tone of a Public Service Announcement, informing us, "If you want to get a copy of a photograph of you taken by the British police, get a Data Protection Act Form, and with this apply directly to the keepers of the Police National Computers Database. There is normally a ten pound charge for this service."

from the essay, 'What's New? - Televisions Mutual Contract', Chris Fite-Wassilak.