Click here to view the trailer: http://vimeo.com/44627473
Click here to view the entire film: https://vimeo.com/103703996
The shop space next door to PEER, owned by Hackney Council, was previously leased to a bookseller, an electrical supplies business and a signmaker's business. It was then disused for four years or so before being rented to PEER.
The lease negotiations were completed just two days before the performance Next Door (the missing subject) was scheduled to start. The shop was full of abandoned materials, tools and assorted detritus relating to the previous occupiers' activities and perhaps sequestered under court bankruptcy regulations?
Next Door (the missing subject) comprised a set of actions over a ten day period in May 2010. Originally a live work, it was simultaneously filmed and photographed.
It took place close to the general election in 2010. This proximity was crucial to the intent of the work. The filmed version is then clearly derived from the original performance.
A painting of Queen Elizabeth II (Monarch at Bay, 1995, tempera and acrylic on paper) that was first shown at the South London Gallery in 1996 was propped up to one side of the debris. It played a key role in the drama of the heap of materials that became rubbish after the shop had been boarded up.
Stuart Brisley, 2012