“You can do what you want from the pavement”

In seeking asylum, or attempting to, people are scrutinised while being held in limbo, their lives surveilled and forced into stasis, sometimes for years, as they wait for their fate to be decided. Lunar House is a building of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) where people are required to apply for asylum, report weekly or fortnightly while they wait for a decision, and undergo interrogations and generally hostile dissections of their lives.

The title comes from what I was told by one of the (three) security guards who came out while I was taking photos.

NB: video contains flashing images.

Portrait - a young Black woman in a white coat sits against a bike parking rack on a high street. Seen through a window, she looks almost transparent, as though the traffic and shops beyond can be seen through her.

Portrait - a young Black woman, in glasses, a white coat, a shawl and and gloves, seen from the waist up, stands amongst trees, staring into the camera.

Scene - a quiet looking room, two soft chairs at about 90 degrees to each other, a coffee table in front of them with a box of tissues on it. A reflection of the window frame in front of the table creates a grid pattern on the table.

A young Black woman, out of focus and turned away from the camera, looks into the distance. Above a field and row of houses, a drone can be seen in the sky.

Portrait - a young black woman in a white coat, colourful gloves and shawl stands sideways to the camera, hands raised above her head. She holds a shopping bag in one hand, and there are trees/branches around her and in the background.

Scene - a small, low table in a corner, on a stone floor, with a vase of red flowers on it. The walls are tinted pink from the light, and a reflection of light from an unseen window.

Portrait - close up of a woman's hand holding her shawl close around her, a coffee cup in her other hand. In the background, a green field and empty white sky can be partially seen.

Portrait - someone's feet in black Doc Marten boots, stamping on frozen/snowy grass that is covered in their boot-prints.

Portrait - a young Black woman, in a white coat, yellow and grey shawl and multi-coloured gloves faces the camera, but looking down at the ground, hands held together on her chest, a shopping bag held on one wrist.

Portrait - three security guards seen from behind, two in yellow hi-vis jackets, the other in a black jumper and trousers, look up at a brutalist building with endless windows and granite pillars. Security cameras are on the corner of the building.

Scene - Lunar House, UK Visa and Immigrations office, a tall tower building, disappearing up into the foggy sky. Another tower building is visible beside it.

Scene - entrance to Lunar House, UK Visa and Immigrations office, being pressure-cleaned by a cleaner in a blue uniform.

Scene - Lunar House, the UK Visa and Immigrations office, the whole building is visible - huge and forbidding, surrounded in mist; traffic passes by in front of it.

Portrait - a young Black woman sits alone at a table in a hall with a row of tables set up with chairs. She is seen from behind, her chin resting on one hand, a large window in the wall ahead of her.

This short film quite literally takes a prolonged look back at this site of surveillance and violence, engaging in sousveillance [watching from below] to turn a watchful eye back on those normally doing the surveilling. Consisting mainly of one image, Lunar House being appraised by the camera, the video is broken though by pictures of V who continues to experience feelings of limbo in this enforced waiting, uncertainty in her status and in her feelings of being here, away from home.

NB: video contains flashing images