Martine Syms: Ugly Plymouth

 The immersive video installation comprises a one-act play shown across three screens – starring Hot Dog, Doobie, and Le Que Sabe. As the narrative progresses, the three characters talk and sing alongside and over each other, one receding as another moves into the foreground. 

In footage the characters are not seen; only their surroundings, and surrounding thoughts, are. The video takes as its establishing environment the Los Angeles described in Bob Kaufman’s poem “Hollywood”: in this Los Angeles, the city is sick without leave. Actors, artists, pimps, salesclerks and poets are selling delusions whole-heartedly, where there is always a catch and never a foundation.