In between identities was shot with/in Grand Theft Auto V, a virtual environment that allows for an improvisational exploration in a seemingly endless space. By experimenting with freely available mods (modifications), Radan was able to alter several details of the original game and exert more control on the cameras. His intervention transformed a violent, relentless action game in a meditative, poetic experience. The same oneiric feeling returns in a more recent work, This water gives back no images (2017), which was the result of another appropriation and transformation of Grand Theft Auto V. Here there are no references to the original game, making it even more unrecognizable and abstract than In between identities. Radan uses Nina Simone’s song “Images”, whose lyrics are at times mirrored by events or situations in the machinima. Both In between identities and This water gives back no images can be seen as a commentary on body image, decay and aging (or lack thereof).
In this 2018 interview, Radan discusses This water gives back no images and his practice:
