Catch it while you can!
Christopher Fernandez's darkly humorous sequence of 20 photographs at Whitespace comprises a chase thriller, playfully ill at ease amid the conventions of American film noir.
Its hero O'Dea – more generously rounded than your average chisel-jawed lead and, as his name suggests, more hapless – flees shadowy pursuers across what at first glance looks like the US, but on closer examination resembles Edinburgh a great deal more.
One scene, for example, in which the hero lies half-dressed, gagged and bound to a railroad, reminds one strongly of the section of track between Powderhall and Leith Walk. Another (above) could almost pass for the St James Centre multi-storey car park.
The most dramatic set-piece (below) – using a mixture of artful framing and judicious Photoshopping – successfully relocates the widescreen terrors of Hitchcock's North by Northwest to the agoraphobia-inducing flatlands near Edinburgh Airport.
'My aim is to parody the idea of the Hollywood Every-man,' writes Fernandez, 'substituting a more contemporary Scottish Every-man in place of the traditional handsome male. At the same time, I pay tribute to the style and aesthetics of US and world cinema alike.'
The result is a balancing act between technical slickness, authentic cynicism and affectionate irony. It's a tease which Fernandez pulls off well, and one which should amuse keen-eyed locals and film-buffs from further afield alike.
O'Dea runs from 6.00–9.00pm at the Whitespace gallery, 11 Gayfield Square until Thursday. See more of Fernandez's work at christopherfernandez.com
