Take It On The Chin, 2020-2021
see book dummy Moving The Goalposts (2024)
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/10246847/545cc41385e5d5263952e28a01f41bbc3cce1665
22nd March 2020 to 9th April 2021; 384 days, 384 photographs and 152431cm red, white and blue thread
“That’s where a lot of debate has been and one of the theories is that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures… I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now to stop the peak of the disease.”
Boris Johnson, This Morning, 5 March 2020
During Lockdown, I saw moments of light and shadow inside my home and set myself the challenge to photograph shapes created by the natural light on a daily basis; this ritual lasted more than a year and helped me to find a focus.
During March to May 2020, we witnessed fatalities in the UK rapidly increasing. Despite the higher numbers of casualties, it seemed the Covid victims were unable to generate a sense of national loss and tragedy as in times of war. Is that because of the news coverage, dominated by statistics, graphs, and curves? Or is it a survival instinct to function amidst adversity? A single death is a tragedy; thousands of avoidable deaths can’t be dismissed as a statistic, and the shock of mass mortality can’t be covered up and dismissed.
The idea of translating the data into artwork for me creates an emotional release that is intended to go beyond numbers and statistics. Winding the thread over the images on the panels in silence takes time and gives me space to think about the lives of individuals beneath the superficial statistics.
Each panel ( 1.14m h X 1.34 m w ) contains 24 images organised in 6 columns. Continuous red, white or blue thread is hovering over the panels, representing the corona virus fatalities in the UK for each day in a criss cross pattern. For the period from 22nd March 2020 to 9th April 2021, 152431cm coloured thread hovering over 16 panels with 384 photographs.
From the last panel attached black thread will be continued to the floor into an engraved trophy, its length is governed by the death toll since 9.4.21 up to the start of the exhibition.
16 Framed Panels with 384 photographs ( c- prints on 5mm dibond,) organised in grids and thread,
2.30m high X 10.80m wide
data from https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/10246847/545cc41385e5d5263952e28a01f41bbc3cce1665
22nd March 2020 to 9th April 2021; 384 days, 384 photographs and 152431cm red, white and blue thread
“That’s where a lot of debate has been and one of the theories is that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures… I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now to stop the peak of the disease.”
Boris Johnson, This Morning, 5 March 2020
During Lockdown, I saw moments of light and shadow inside my home and set myself the challenge to photograph shapes created by the natural light on a daily basis; this ritual lasted more than a year and helped me to find a focus.
During March to May 2020, we witnessed fatalities in the UK rapidly increasing. Despite the higher numbers of casualties, it seemed the Covid victims were unable to generate a sense of national loss and tragedy as in times of war. Is that because of the news coverage, dominated by statistics, graphs, and curves? Or is it a survival instinct to function amidst adversity? A single death is a tragedy; thousands of avoidable deaths can’t be dismissed as a statistic, and the shock of mass mortality can’t be covered up and dismissed.
The idea of translating the data into artwork for me creates an emotional release that is intended to go beyond numbers and statistics. Winding the thread over the images on the panels in silence takes time and gives me space to think about the lives of individuals beneath the superficial statistics.
Each panel ( 1.14m h X 1.34 m w ) contains 24 images organised in 6 columns. Continuous red, white or blue thread is hovering over the panels, representing the corona virus fatalities in the UK for each day in a criss cross pattern. For the period from 22nd March 2020 to 9th April 2021, 152431cm coloured thread hovering over 16 panels with 384 photographs.
From the last panel attached black thread will be continued to the floor into an engraved trophy, its length is governed by the death toll since 9.4.21 up to the start of the exhibition.
16 Framed Panels with 384 photographs ( c- prints on 5mm dibond,) organised in grids and thread,
2.30m high X 10.80m wide
data from https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk