Chomsky footage left wanting

According to Cornelia Parker, her 42min film of philosopher and linguistics professor Noam Chomsky holding forth on big issues is 'me putting my head above the parapet.'

It's certainly a departure from earlier work, such as her famous exploded garden shed. But whether it has any greater effect is debatable - Parker's remarkable sleight of hand with physical objects is blunted in this more detached medium.

She avoids straightforward diatribe, however, creating brief portraits of silence. Between Chomsky's answers her voice is absent. Instead, we see Chomsky listening, blinking, nodding, gulping, flaring nostrils, pursing lips and adjusting his glasses.

His monologue takes on the intimacy of an Alan Bennett Talking Head, albeit about levels of economic analysis rather than a cream cracker under the settee.

Chomsky compares the US foreign policy of quashing 'successful defiance' with a Mafia godfather punishing disobedience. He argues that our economic system is fundamentally flawed.

And he touches on climate change, the reason for Parker's film (the screening is in partnership with Friends of the Earth and visitors can leave thoughts on 'poison and antidote' postcards).

However, Chomsky doesn't have Al Gore's slideshow or the youthful passion of Leonardo DiCaprio, leaving the footage wanting as an environmental show-stopper.

Until Mar 30, Whitechapel Laboratory, Whitechapel High Street E1, Wed to Sun 11am to 6pm (Thu talks until 9pm), free. Tel: 020 7522 7888. www.whitechapel.org Tube: Aldgate East

Chomskian Abstract
Whitechapel Laboratory