Two Men Speaking About One Thing
Alan Brown, 2014
Two tin cans are attached to flexible metal supports coming from a small wooden box. Both cans are fitted with a small speaker and from each a separate audio track is played.
Audio recordings are from a BBC televised debate on Britain’s future in Europe with Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage (April 2014). The opening statements from both speakers are played simultaneously through each tin can. The ardent dialogue and polarised views become entangled and incomprehensible.
The box is fitted with a sensor that detects the presence of a viewer and fades the volume accordingly – the cans are silent if no one is ‘listening’.