Phil Collins, ‘they shoot horses’ (detail), 2004. Courtesy the artist and Kerlin Gallery

The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea is currently hosting a comprehensive exhibition of photography, music and video by British artist Phil Collins.

‘yeah…..you, baby you’ is resident at the Glynn Vivian until April 23 2006 and showcases work that is often the culmination of prolonged periods of contact between the artist and the individuals pictured in his work.

Included is his remarkable two-screen video installation, they shoot horses, which references the mammoth dance marathons of depression era USA and the 1969 Sydney Pollack movie about them. Collins’ take on this phenomenon involved a trip to Palestine, where he auditioned a number of young people to participate in an 8-hour disco dance marathon.

Phil Collins, ‘abbas amini’, 2003. Courtesy the artist & Kerlin Gallery

The resulting film is by turns energetic, amusing and moving - the dancing interrupted only by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque, occasional power cuts and other technical problems. Underpinning this work are ideas that explore survival and collapse, heroism and exploitation and the cabin fever mentality generated by eight hours of repetitive action.

Much of Collins’ work tries to investigate the perils of representation and the emotional pitfalls that lie at the core of photography and video and elsewhere in the exhibition are photographs that are both moving and disturbing.

The latter is partly down to the scenarios that Collins creates but the locations, such as Palestine, Kosovo, Colombia, Iraq, Serbia and Northern Ireland, are all places where the fabric of the community has been tested to the full.

Phil Collins, ‘sanja the morning vlada left for the army’, 2002. Courtesy the artist & Kerlin Gallery

Despite this the extreme human situations and experiences he explores – such as love and death, war and loss are balanced by a strong element of humour and energy.

Venturing into the Colombian capital Bogota, Collins installed a karaoke machine and invited fans of the Smiths to sing along to an entire album of cover versions. The film of this bizarre exercise features 60 singers, filmed over three days, crooning along to Smiths classics such as Panic and Golden Lights.

This is work that fuses elements of documentary with subtle political comment but a direct engagement with the subject is core to the work. Sometimes it may seem like an unintentional by-product of his travels but throughout Collins manages to establish an empathy with his subjects.

Phil Collins, ‘the world won’t listen’, 2004-05. Courtesy the artist.

There is a real sense of carefully balancing the sentimental with a daring spirit of optimism and camaraderie in the work of Phil Collins, which allows for an immediate connection with the viewer.

Collins is currently one of four photographers waiting to hear the result of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, with work on show at London's Photographers' Gallery.