This two screen audio-visual installation was shown at The Chapel and Sunday School, Fazeley Street during November 2005. Lifeguards begins with a colourful scene of women and children playing in the water off the Tel Aviv beach, a classic picture of leisure. Shot from a distance and screened silently, the peaceful image is suddenly interrupted by an aggressive soundscape of the lifeguards’ forceful commands. Their violent sounding instructions are translated by subtitles, flashing onto the screen, often so rapidly that they cannot be read. They are actually warning bathers away from rocks and jellyfish.

The artist focuses on the lifeguards’ functional use of language, emphasising the rupture between their militant tone and the caring and protective content of their speech. Their performance of security is made all the more alarming by its integration with the normal everyday life of the Israeli people. The experience of the installation was further intensified by the fast switching between the spoken and written word, light and darkness, volume and silence.