BRUCE CHARLESWORTH
STRANGER'S INDEX
INSTALLATIONS
Installation detail from Stranger's Index (peristyle interior - left side), 1989
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Unlike most of Charlesworth's installations, STRANGER'S INDEX doesn't literally represent any place shown in the accompanying video. There are visual allusions to scenes in the video, but the installation itself takes the form of an exaggerated archive of visual references.
The viewer enters through two rows of a faux-cinderblock peristyle, which loosely evokes the austere interior of the interrogation room in the video. Beyond the columns is a room with a tree and a video monitor on legs and casters. Adhered to to the tree is a large target, alluding to the archery scene in the video. Also in this room is a tall video monitor housing sheathed in metallic industrial linoleum. Nearby is a white chaise lounge. In an adjacent room orange satin drapes billow to either side of a window, held in place by massive boulders. This final image is an exaggeration of a comment made by an impatient police detective in the video, Miranda.