Ninety metres above the ground, a thin metal wire stretches between three tower blocks in North Glasgow’s Red Road. A solitary figure steps off the edge of the building, moving step by silent step along the wire…

High Wire, Catherine Yass’ multi-screen film and video installation, continues the artist’s interest in vertiginous spaces.

Drawing on filmed footage of acclaimed high-wire walker Didier Pasquette, High Wire is as much concerned with the isolated physical space inhabited by the walker – in a landscape dominated by the brutalism of tower blocks – as with this remarkable mental and physical transformation. In this publication, these themes are explored in essays by Francis McKee and Steven Connor.

Catherine Yass is one of the most innovative artists working with film and photography today. Her short films generate startling new perspectives on the urban environment, capturing familiar sights from highly unusual vantage points.

High Wire was co-commissioned by Artangel and Glasgow international Festival of Contemporary Visual Art 2008 and produced by Artangel.