Jennifer & Kevin McCoy: Tiny, Funny, Big and Sad

An exhibition that mixes model-making and customised computer software to reflect on the experience of cinema-going and to re-invent the role of the viewer.

Using homespun hobby skills and robotic choreography, the McCoys create miniature film sets that spy on themselves and generate their own cinema sequences. Artistic collaborators Jennifer and Kevin McCoy have earned international renown for works that mix film fandom and geek chic, exploring the strange realities of a hi-tech, mass-media society and bringing fantastic worlds to life. The McCoys make their London debut with Tiny, Funny, Big and Sad, an exhibition that mixes model-making and customised computer software to reflect on the experience of cinema-going and to re-invent the role of the viewer. In the words of Surrealist writer Georges Legrand, "Nobody sees the same film." The Traffic series (2004), installed in the Gallery, recreates the artists' personal memories, each telling the story of a particular time, place or event that has become linked to the memory of viewing a specific film. One work in the series depicts the McCoys' second date, when they went to see Godard's film Week End at a cinema in Paris. Another recreates a more sombre evening spent in the cardiac ward, watching American Graffiti on a standard-issue hospital TV set. The Constant World, installed in the foyer, is a newly commissioned work using a giant plasma screen and 36 live video cameras. A miniature film set on a many-armed mobile is suspended from the ceiling. It depicts a film noir-style story set in an imaginary city based on New Babylon, the unrealised brainchild of Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys. Constant's city was conceived as a 'camp for nomads on a planetary scale', a space where you could move freely between temporary habitats constructed to meet your every physical and emotional need. The McCoys' installation, in contrast, is a space for cinematic nomads. As a nomad, you can move freely around the film set, find your own parallels between images, and change your relationship with the image on the screen. You are asked to navigate physically in the way that you mentally navigate any film or video. Each time you go to the cinema or turn on the television, you bring your own ideas, interpretations and memories to the images on the screen. Tiny, Funny, Big and Sad is a celebration of this cinematic nomadism, and it reminds us that viewing is an adventure, a journey and a creative act.