| This installation and performance piece consisted of a video animation of 920 still photographs, taken on a four hour walk over bleak local moorland, projected onto a large screen and viewed in a claustrophobic space; a room, built specifically for the installation, painted completely white, containing a white drawing board, white table and white drawing tools; a letter from my consultant relating to my Hepatitis C infection; and a performance which entailed making quick gestural black ink drawings on cartridge paper, and mounting these firstly on the walls of the room, then when the walls of the room were full, in the corridors outside the room. I set myself the task of completing the series of 920 drawings (one for each of the photographs) during the published opening hours of the exhibition, which entailed making 22 drawings an hour over the 5 day period of the exhibition. These were completed in the final minute of the last day. In the act of performance, the sensitive response I experienced from many members of the audience was both moving and nourishing for me; with many, I felt that a mutual empathy was exchanged, my own emotional state clearly touching similar emotions in the viewers, some coming close to tears. Many stayed and had extended and often very personal conversations with me - I was deeply moved by the willingness of some to expose some of their own vulnerability in response to my own revelation. The video was for me a depiction of my emotional state as the threat of serious illness arose from the news that the virus had become active on my liver. The drawings and performance were a process of mapping both the physical terrain of the walk and, simultaneously, my emotional landscape. The making of this piece has helped me gain focus and perspective on this situation, and has facilitated my own organismic valuing process (a term used in Person Centred Counselling which refers to the trusting of one's own judgement). Allopathy is a term used by homoeopaths to describe orthodox Western medicine - whereas homoeopathy (literally like - disease) works in accord with the patient's constitution, homoeopaths believe that allopathy (literally against - disease), whilst attacking the disease, simultaneously uses the patient's body as a battleground - hence the virulent side effects of treatments such as the therapy for Hepatitis C. A limited image gallery of the piece has been uploaded to the site. I hope to expand this soon, and to include more images of individual drawings, and the video animation of the walk discussed in the text above. | | |