Michael Smythe

The five-part film’s narrative presents a wealthy European family who are unexpectedly confronted by a mysterious manifestation, ‘The Object’, which suddenly appears in the living room of their country home. This imposing figure seems to have a profound effect on the conduct of each individual family member. At night ‘The Object’ eats pages from ideological texts, which it subsequently spits out again. Owing to this, the father figure, ‘Daddy’, changes radically from an elitist with liberal economic convictions, to someone who goes in search of collectivist ideals. The Ourhouse series commenced production in 2010, with the latest episode completing production in 2016.

Vision Quest depicts Marcus Coates’ three-year collaboration with a neighbourhood in Elephant & Castle (South London) that is suffering from a violent gentrification scheme. In this period the artist engaged in a shamanic quest to locate animal spirits able of guiding the community. Practising lengthily rites, the artist together with residents, local politicians and a psychedelic doom rock orchestra, appeal to guardian animals to appear in visions or dreams and to guide them in their troubled housing issues.