ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the ways the audiovisual codes of 'Mercy Street' operate in a temporal flow. Matt Mahurin's video for Peter Gabriel's 'Mercy Street' begins with a man taking a boat out onto the water. He carries some unidentified cargo that might be a person–alive or dead. A woman, possibly institutionalized, prepares for death through the practices of Catholic faith. The video narrates a woman's experiences as she struggles with mental institutions, the memory of incest, and the threat of suicide or being drowned; the story is told out of sequence and in fragments, and the viewer must struggle to learn the piece. By tracing the contours of movements of objects within the frame across several edits, one can gain an even greater appreciation for the song's melodic materials and their affective characteristics. Mahurin's dark imagery complements Gabriel's hermetic style; this basic similarity provides continuity when elements diverge from the mix.
