43 Strangers

43 Strangers is a video installation captured from a drawing performance on a market street in East London, in which I invited members of the public to draw my portrait while I drew theirs, looking directly at each other and without looking at our paper. A series of video portraits record the intimacy exchanged between strangers and artist as a result of the drawing process. The work explores experiences of public and private space, playfully challenging expectations of accepted social interaction through an invitation to engage the gaze.