janet cardiff and george bures miller at the fruitmarket gallery, UK

the killing machine, 2007

a rare chance to experience the work of one of the most internationally respected artist partnerships, janet cardiff and george bures miller. cardiff and bures miller make immersive works of art which combine image, video, sound and music in architectural and sculptural installations which draw an audience into a highly credible fictional world.

the killing machine, 2007

the exhibition includes the early installation dark pool (1995), in which viewers are invited to move through a room full of abandoned furniture, carpets, books, empty dishes and mechanical paraphernalia, activating fragments of sound, eavesdropping on music, echoes of stories and snatches of dialogue which tell the enigmatic story of the ‘dark pool’. the piece is joined by opera for a small room (2005), –

opera for a small room, 2005

 – a simply-constructed shed, containing almost 2,000 records and eight record players, which turn on and off as the room begins to perform for an audience. the performance recreates the life of an imaginary opera lover, living alone, surrounded by his records. lights and music shift around the room, the needles of the record players raising and lowering to create an intensely affective environment.

opera for a small room, 2005

the most recent work in the exhibition, the killing machine (2007), was partly inspired by franz kafka’s in the penal colony, and partly by the american system of capital punishment. a mechanical ballet activated by the viewer, it takes an ironic, mesmerising and menacing approach to machines designed to torture and kill.

opera for a small room, 2005

original, imaginative and performative, the work of cardiff and bures miller engages all the viewer’s senses in the experience of alternative realities.