Commissioned by Spike Island, Flash in the Metropolitan was filmed in the depths of darkness in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the three and a half minute film Nashashibi and Skaer focus on artefacts from the Near Eastern, African and Oceanic collections. Both artists in their own practices are interested in re-contextualising the viewer’s awareness and recognition and this film continues to engage with this theme. In flashing a blinding light on to a series of historical objects, Nashashibi and Skaer subvert the notion of contemplation that is so closely associated with a museum environment. The viewer is instead granted a fleeting glimpse of a series of artefacts, which, with any detail removed, reduces their status to an icon without a narrative.