One way Road to Freedom, 2021-2023
“With every day that goes by, this program of vaccinations is creating a shield around the entire population, which means that we are now traveling on a one-way road to freedom and we can begin safely to restart our lives and do it with confidence.”
Boris Johnson speech 22.2.21
Despite the high continuous numbers of casualties since freedom day on 21st July 2021, when all restrictions were lifted in the UK and wearing face masks became a “personal choice” , it seems that “life is back to normal” without the fear of catching the virus which had dominating in the UK every day. At the same time the government narrative is dominated by celebrating its successes with vaccination. Having lived in an authoritarian regime I have difficulties in dealing with personal choice during a pandemic which affects everybody. Is the choice whether to wear a mask or not a sort of democracy without taking responsibility? There is no furlough scheme for people who cannot work from home to isolate when they contract COVID, with the result that inequalities of health, income and the ability to protect oneself are even more exposed than they were at the beginning of the pandemic. It all feels rather uncertain, like Russian roulette, a real threat, but hoping for the best. Do we experience the fear of covid less because of the continuous exposure to the narrative of the government and their lack of compassion?
I spent the summer 2021 exploring our little garden, photographing details. Surrounded by normality; the sun, the blue sky, the light breeze of the wind creating moving shadows from the leaves of the old oak trees, a warm summer feeling.Those feelings were distorted when I looked at the coronavirus data, revealing that the pandemic is still with us; Enjoying these summer moments felt wrong. Responding to this feeling I am redacting my own images, removing texture, shapes and subject matter. Whats left is the colour of the summer. I merged the images with covid data. From far away the merging seems to be uniform, but on closer inspection the squares are not lined up, imperfections appear.
Composite of 24 images , up to 2m wide X 1.75m high
Boris Johnson speech 22.2.21
Despite the high continuous numbers of casualties since freedom day on 21st July 2021, when all restrictions were lifted in the UK and wearing face masks became a “personal choice” , it seems that “life is back to normal” without the fear of catching the virus which had dominating in the UK every day. At the same time the government narrative is dominated by celebrating its successes with vaccination. Having lived in an authoritarian regime I have difficulties in dealing with personal choice during a pandemic which affects everybody. Is the choice whether to wear a mask or not a sort of democracy without taking responsibility? There is no furlough scheme for people who cannot work from home to isolate when they contract COVID, with the result that inequalities of health, income and the ability to protect oneself are even more exposed than they were at the beginning of the pandemic. It all feels rather uncertain, like Russian roulette, a real threat, but hoping for the best. Do we experience the fear of covid less because of the continuous exposure to the narrative of the government and their lack of compassion?
I spent the summer 2021 exploring our little garden, photographing details. Surrounded by normality; the sun, the blue sky, the light breeze of the wind creating moving shadows from the leaves of the old oak trees, a warm summer feeling.Those feelings were distorted when I looked at the coronavirus data, revealing that the pandemic is still with us; Enjoying these summer moments felt wrong. Responding to this feeling I am redacting my own images, removing texture, shapes and subject matter. Whats left is the colour of the summer. I merged the images with covid data. From far away the merging seems to be uniform, but on closer inspection the squares are not lined up, imperfections appear.
Composite of 24 images , up to 2m wide X 1.75m high
