Catalogue > At random

Criss Cross opens with a single image of a parked car lit only by a street light, although this ?minimal? scene is countered by the imposition of redness, infa red or night vision. This opening image in many ways sets the agenda for what is to follow, the colour red coupled with the overpowering element of water, a double saturation both literally and metaphorically. Criss Cross appropriates images from particular areas of media representation, the video takes genres that would appear to come from areas that might be generally referred to as ?low life? or an underworld of sexual exploitation and criminality. What follows from the opening sequence is a series of image clips, fragments, as if wrenched from more prolonged narrative sources, these visual fragmented elements have in common the night, what goes on in the night, what goes on in the ?after dark?. There is an almost subterranean quality to the series of rolling images, cars being broken into, sex chat line conversations, clandestine meetings in dark streets, empty car parks as sites of secret exchange and the imposing sounds and images of law enforcement, however the latter seem only on the periphery of this darkness.

Nooshin Farhid was born in Tehran, Iran and lives in London, she has been involved in a number of exhibitions, screenings and festivals internationally. She also co curated a number of exhibitions including ?Use this kind of Sky? which manifests as gallery show, video installation, radio broadcast, film/video screening and publication (www.nooshinfarhid.com). Nooshin Farhid?s video works whilst employing different subjects and scenarios have a connecting thread, a commonality, namely there is a certain kind of agitation, a restlessness, a sense of things not being right. This agitation and an unwillingness to settle for what is ?on offer? ( this is the way things are ), reflects upon the current state of things socially, politically and ideologically. This work continually picks away at those familiar stabilising forces we encounter on a daily basis both within the social space of the everyday but also within the domain of contemporary art itself. Farhid?s work is eclectic and conceptually nomadic, she uses the camera as a visual notebook collecting fragments of encounters, events, chance meetings that collectively question the incessant drive towards normality and conformity through the pressure of state surveillance. At the same time she appropriates that other form of ?making dumb? the popular media ? soaps, reality TV, Bollywood, MTV. This raw material is savagely and uncompromisingly edited and undergoes a form of post production, collaged fragments are welded together, each one activating and qualifying its predecessor. This process produces a contemporary surreal space that re-presents the familiar into that which is astonishing and invites the viewer to reconsider.