The Nocturnal Bench is a meditative essay performance video that was primarily inspired by Bill Brandt’s  post-black and white photography and American film noir. In particular, Brandt’s photograph of the writer Elias Canetti sitting on a park bench at Hampstead Heath has haunted me for years. The video was also inspired by Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton as well. For an installation version of the video as such, it consists of the video itself and three large digital black and white photographs of me sitting at the edge of the bench performing certain gestures emblematic of Beckett and Keaton. The Nocturnal Bench was part of my video contribution to ‘Etudes for the 21 Century’, Robert Cahen and Kingsley Ng, Osage Gallery and Osage Foundation, Hong Kong, 28 November–28 December 2013. The exhibition was the inaugural exhibition for the gallery itself.

It was shot with a Red Epic Camera. Credits: Cinematography, Josh Raymond; Camera assistant, Joshua Heath; Grips, Robin Heartfield; Runner, Mitchell Sloan. Location: Petersham Park, Sydney.