PERIPHERY

Stabilizers

For two weeks during early 2006, one of Bristol’s landmark buildings, Tollgate House, was turned into a giant canvas and project space by Blackout Arts, the Bristol-based artist collective.

Giant video projectors exhibited images on three sides of the 18 floor, 9 sided skyscraper, which were covered in white scaffold wrap. To add more excitement to the piece, the building was to be demolished floor by floor during the project and the scaffold changed appearance. Bespoke installations of striking and suggestive moving images changed the appearance of the building and the surrounding area - entertaining, provoking and stimulating the vast audiences that pass the site.

The reach and power of the project was enhanced by an FM Radio broadcast providing the synchronised soundtrack, music and voices to accompany the visuals.

Joe Magee's short filmwork, Stabilizers, saw the breaking apart of the Tollgate building as part of an organic process - a process of continued 'stabilization'. Larvae that decompose generate stability from disorder - and take new life into the bargain.

Images © Joe Magee