EVERYTHING from the plush seats and the ice cream treats to the Agatha Christie-style plot is designed to make you think you are in a cinema until you take a closer look at the colourful cast on screen.

Everyone in the film part of Ming Wong's installation at the Chinese Arts Centre (until May 9) is a different race and he has used a familiar scenario to take a pot shot at people's stereotypical views about race.

Whodunnit? can be taken at a number of different levels.

Visitors to the centre can either lean back into the genuine cinema seats (rescued from an old picture house) and enjoy pretending they are in a 1970s cinema watching a drawing room detective drama, or they can look beyond the melodramatic events on screen and see African, Asian, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Irish actors behaving outside the normal stereotype.

Ming Wong was born in Singapore in 1971 and has lived in London since 1996. He gained a masters at the Slade School in London following his studies in Chinese art and writing for the theatre in Singapore. He is currently the first Pearson Creative Research Fellow at the British Library.

The Chinese Arts Centre moved to new buildings in Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter last November following a £2.2m grant from the Arts Council. It acts as a national agency promoting, commissioning and exhibiting Chinese culture.

Ming Wong will be talking about his work at a free Video Scratch Night, including live music, at the Chinese arts Centre on April 29, 6.30pm. For information email marketing@chinese-arts-centre.org

Whodunnit is at the Chinese Arts Centre until Sunday, May 9.

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