Conflab

About

Conflab is a video installation conceived as probing into a quirk of town planning in a specific area of South East London: Peckham Square. Housing the Will Alsop designed Peckham Library (winner of the Stirling Prize for architecture 2000) and the Peckham Pulse ‘Healthy Living Centre', the square is the centre piece of a major urban regeneration project. Conflab takes place at the entrance to Peckham Pulse, which directly faces the rear smoking area of the Kentish Drovers - a Wetherspoons pub1. The video documents this in-between space: a possible site for recreation, contemplation and confrontation. Gym goers lock up their bikes overlooked by edgy punters. Locals of both persuasions, perhaps uneasy at the proximity of the other, contemplate switching sides, or trading places. The video posits two actors: one Indian man and one Italian woman playing distorted versions of themselves. The man drinking in the pub, the woman gym bound. An accompanying voice over re-enacts a sketch by the Two Ronnies2 - ‘Four Candles (or Fork Handles)' in which linguistic misunderstandings cause unnecessary confrontation. Difficulties in pronunciation obscure original meanings, alluding to the spatial mix-up. Sean O'Connor and Rob Dennis have been working together since 2002, their videos have been screened in venues across London, including Tate Britain, Crimes Town Gallery and Hoxton Hall.