A video work by Idris Khan, Lying in Wait, is on view in The Space, a deliberately experimental service managed by Arts Council England and developed in partnership with the BBC. The Space is a project designed to give arts and culture organizations the opportunity to experiment and engage with new and existing audiences in an innovative digital environment. It is a pilot and will be available through October 31, 2012.
Lying in Wait is a collaboration between Idris Khan and dancer Sarah Warsop. The culmination of their lengthy preparation took place over three days in late November 2008 in a film studio in Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, bringing together an experienced team of technicians and artists, which included set designer Sam Collins. The set is a series of moving bookshelves filled with thousands of decommissioned library books that creates a claustrophobic and tense atmosphere in which Sarah dances and re-dances her series of brief choreographed sequences. The soundtrack to the work was culled from footage from microphones strapped to her thighs and in the neck of her dress, recording the sound of her movements through the stiff fabric. The elements combine in the final piece to create a tense and delicate visual work.
To view Lying in Wait online, please visit The Space Website.