EMERGE:NCY is an embodied reaction to the encroaching structural determinism of city life within the systems and expectations that entrap us. It is a site-specific film made for the London Piccadilly lights, trapping a helpless giant within this monumental lynchpin for commerce and tourism. The giant struggles, tired and defeated and unrelenting—then a breakthrough: light floods the darkness. Its title comes from Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Hope in the Dark’, which argues: “Inside the word “emergency” is “emerge”; from an emergency new things come forth.”

EMERGE:NCY is the recipient of the CIRCA 2023 Public Vote Prize.