Crossroads - Bruce Conner - Thomas Dane, London.

Crossroads is an important document in the history of the moving image. Made in 1976, Conner uses some of the extravagant mountain of government documentation made during the Bikini Atol atomic tests. He creates a meditation of profound power and beauty, an unforgettable film which, if like me, you grew up assuming nuclear Armageddon was seldom more than moments away, is the stuff of intimately familiar adolescent nightmare. The footage which is as compelling as it is horrifying, unfolds in a manner that permits this ambivalence to evolve into dialog in the viewer. The two soundtracks by Patrick Gleeson and Terry Riley are deployed with rare brilliance to unmoor the images from their perpetually evolving history and allow viewers to interrogate their own anxieties and the cultural edifice constructed around such weapons and their place in the world. This is a great chance to see this crucial work, perfectly installed, until the 18th of July.