49.53 x 74.93 cm
Derived from a recent series of drawings called The Arrest, this video, tentatively titled Gas Men or Globe, (Globe being a popular cinema in Port of Spain), Christopher Cozier’s latest video installation investigates the ongoing environmental and sociopolitical challenges presented by commercial expansion and political opportunism.
Through his drawings, prints, sound art and video work, Cozier explores the dubious space of multinational companies and their role in global politics. Gas Men was filmed on Lake Michigan, a site that in recent years has witnessed repeated crude oil spills, care of British Petroleum’s Whiting, Indiana plant. Thematically intrigued by the role of geography, Cozier created Gas Men to interrogate the specifics of site and movement of bodies. The beach in the scene could be Venezuela, Mexico, Trinidad, or Lake Michigan. Adopting a methodology akin to the aforementioned multinationals, Cozier situates his practice in many different locales; creating site-specific work while identifying gestures and elucidating concerns that are part of the larger Diaspora.
