Spitfire 123

The third in an ongoing six-part series collectively titled ‘From the Darwin Translations’. This series, like Jones’ previous projects, shifts between installation, video, and performance, in an exploration of human (sexual) attraction. The installation spans two rooms, one with a large screen and another with three video monitors. The monitor room shows a more meditative, transitional space, ‘poppy fields’; a repeating image series of swaying poppies, accompanied by the rustle of wind, bird song and insect noises and interrupted now and then by the roar of airplanes flying overhead. The large screen in the other room presents, ‘Spitfire’, showing shots from the cockpit of the legendary World War II fighter plane, accompanied by engine-sounds, dramatic computerized noises and oscillating-music, as well as whispering voices. Sky and land spiral, falter, and blur as intimate fantasies are imparted. Thus the result is fragmented and disorientating. The position of the audience shifts between that of voyeur and that of participant. She threatens to undo you with the romance of memory, aeroplanes and youth; you have to look, listen and feel.