The cacophony you're presently hearing is the recursive, strengthening screaming of “Marvelous!” echoing through Pruned Headquarters for Bridge, a site-specific installation by Michael Cross.
“Housed in a former church,“ a project statement reads, “the piece comprises submerging two thirds of the inside of the church in water, and producing a series of steps which rise out of the apparently empty man-made ‘lake’ as you walk across them. Each step emerges one step in front of you and disappears back underneath behind you as you go. This ‘bridge’ is purely mechanical, the weight of the person on it depresses each step a little, this force activates a submerged mechanism which raises the next step.”
And yes, in what will certainly precipitate an outbreak of messianic prophecies, marian visions and apocalyptic auguries, “the public are invited to walk out on it as if walking on water, eventually reaching the middle of the lake, thirty steps and twelve meters from the shore. There they will stand alone and detached, stranded in the middle of a plane of water until they choose to return the way they came. For some people this experience of being cut off and surrounded by water will be peaceful, for others terrifying. For some walking across the water will be pure childish joy, whilst others will be too scared to try.”
Meanwhile, we are forced to quote a few biblical passages on the redemptive and sublime qualities of water.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (Psalms 42:1)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (Psalms 32:1-2)
Save me, O God; for the waters are come into my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. (Psalms 69:1-2)
The installation closes on 30 October.
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