Reenactment for a Future Scenario no.1 presents an action that is stranded in time and space – a state where the adrenalin of emergency has dissipated into the tedium of the everyday. A figure shrouded in a silver protection suit walks wearily towards a strange craft. Huge and misshapen, not exactly a plane, the massive steel outline looms in the half-light. It has one wing, half a body and its fuselage is blackened by fire. There are no windows and it is obvious that this craft will never leave the ground.
The silver-clad figure seems to be caught in a sisyphean dream – endlessly enacting the rituals of a cheap air flight. He boards and re-boards this rough approximation of a 1990’s jet plane, but something seems to be very wrong. For no clear reason, flames emerge from the engines and quickly spread to engulf the plane in a ball of fire. Seemingly oblivious, the figure walks on through the shimmering heat, climbs the steps and disappears inside the flaming vehicle to take his seat and wait.
The steel object and the film could both belong to a latter day cargo cult – a kind of votive sculpture that evokes the spirits of air travel whilst failing to grasp the essential practicalities of flight. EZY1899 could be a film from a future time – a future that has lost track, or forgotten, why it was that we flew. The film presents an endless pre-enactment – an extrapolation from the absurdities of now that are projected into a possible future or dream.
