Do you watch too much TV? Tony Mills wonders that he might, and explores his relationship to that seductive box in his phenomenal video-interactive dance, Watch It!
Sitting on a green overstuffed armchair, and dressed in a black and tan striped polo and navy jogging bottoms, Mills changes channels on his television furiously, starving for the screen until eventually he is a slug inching across the carpet. In a section of large-scale projection, Mills interacts with his life-sized video self with astounding beauty and synchronicity. Then, in a one-sided romantic affair, he twists and tumbles about with a small TV set in his arms while his partner can only respond with a static screen. In a striking surreal image, he places the box on his shoulders and the TV becomes his own head.
Mills spends the show trying to fuse himself with the digital experience, and in his final sequence he basically does. While full of fun, relatable images and scenes, the power of this piece lies in its exploration of addiction, and obsession with an entity that is not only personally bewitching, but one with which live-performance itself is constantly struggling. Watch It! ultimately succeeds on many levels.
