‘London, whichever way we turn, is so vast and varied, so rich in what is interesting, that to one who would wander with a plastic mind irresponsibly day after day in its streets and among its treasures, there is not a
little difficulty in deciding where to begin and there is even greater difficulty in knowing where to end.’
– From A Wanderer In London by E.V. Vucas (twenty-sixth edition, 1926)

Wanderlust (video 2011, 30mins) is a chronological log of video observations recorded over a year during walks in London. There is no narrative, no panning, there are no special effects. The camera remains fixed on a tripod as it records whatever happens in the frame. The ambient sound forms an integral part of the video work.

Art critic Colin Perry writes: ‘In Wanderlust (2011) Bakker has captured serendipitous beauty and abjection on the streets, parks and byways of London, which he filmed over a period of a single year. Every surface ripples with tragicomic potential. A gangly guard in oversized red cape stomps around in front of Whitehall; a sex doll is impaled on some vicious spikes; a hand written sign tells us mordantly: ‘Fluffy ginger cat found dead’. Wanderlust’s mood depends on the timely distribution of elements, from the sublime (an urban fox sleeping in a garden) to the ridiculous (a trumpet player whose only visible presence is a flared horn peaking out from behind a wall). This is humour in the minor key, muddled with signifiers of sexual desire and daily tragedy. Bakker’s videos give the sense that we are all embroiled in it up to our necks.’

Wanderlust is shown as part of the Marginal Arts Festival in Roanoke, Virginia, USA (16-21 February 2012). Tuesday 21 February, Grandin Theatre, Roanaoke. Screenings at 4.45pm and 7.15pm.

Shown as part of the Marginal Arts Festival, Roanoke, Virginia, USA, 21 February 2012; Meantime Multiplex 2011, Cheltenham Spa (alongside film and video works by Shelley Davis; Jamie Quantrill and John Walter; Zierle & Carter and Eugene Doyen – meantime.org.uk), 6-25 November 2011; Portobello Film Festival Video Jukebox, 6 September 2011; and Crouch End Open Studios 7/8 May 2011.

The below essay accompanied the screenings of Inspect, Still and Wanderlust on 7/8 May 2011 at Crouch End Open Studios.

Three video works by Roelof Bakker

Although it is a minor facet of Roelof Bakker's crisp, well-framed photographic and video art, I want to introduce it in terms of humour. Of course, Bakker's work is not laugh-out-loud funny, and nor is intended to be. Indeed, these videos glitter with unabashed aesthetic euphoria. Bakker's London – the core subject of the three videos here – is as elegiac and redolent as Eugène Atget's Paris, William Eggleston's Midwest America or Wolfgang Tillman's Berlin (I compare Bakker to photographers rather than filmmakers quite deliberately – he is an artist of near-static vignettes). Yet, it is a bleak sense of wit that sits at the heart of Bakker's perspicacious engagement with the tragicomic detritus of everyday life.

Inspect (2011) is a short video in which the artist shuffles around the abandoned edifice of Hornsey Town Hall, North London, dressed in a decontamination suit that fits like an oversized prophylactic. He moves with comic timing and posture, Buster Keaton in a baby grow.

In Still (2010), also filmed at Hornsey Town Hall, the building is the star: a monolithic modernist Grade II listed building that once housed offices, debating chambers, and a concert hall (rock legends Queen played their first ever gig there in 1971), that was vacated in the 1980s following administrative changes within local government. Bakker shows us a world hidden to the public since the building's closure: corridors, meeting rooms, debating chambers. It is hard to tell to what degree the artist has intervened in the space (he has evidently rearranged some furnishings). At once spooky and absurd, the place appears haunted by a ham-fisted poltergeist: doors and drawers open and shut of their own volition. Meanwhile, in the theatre, a lone pianist plays a melancholy composition on an untuned grand piano. It is certainly moving, but why is she there? Can we trust the artist? Does it matter?

In Wanderlust (2011) Bakker has captured serendipitous beauty and abjection on the streets, parks and byways of London, which he filmed over a period of a single year. Every surface ripples with tragicomic potential. A gangly guard in oversized red cape stomps around in front of Whitehall; a sex doll is impaled on some vicious spikes; a hand written sign tells us mordantly: 'Fluffy cat found dead'. Wanderlust's mood depends on the timely distribution of elements, from the sublime (an urban fox sleeping in a garden) to the ridiculous (a trumpet player whose only visible presence is a flared horn peaking out from behind a wall). This is humour in the minor key, muddled with signifiers of sexual desire and daily tragedy. Bakker's videos give the sense that we are all embroiled in it up to our necks.

Colin Perry
Colin Perry is an art writer and critic. He writes for a range of art publications (Frieze, frieze.com, Art Monthly, Catalogue magazine, MAP, and ArtReview online)