Transmission - Climate Crisis
Acrylic paint, Hands, Ready-mades, Photography, Graphic Design
This piece represents stifled communication and our resilience as people to overcome the hurdles presented by the pandemic. It represents the danger of touch, and our collective creativity around its absence. It explores nature; human nature and the natural world.
Scientists predicted pandemics as a result of climate change. The current Covid pandemic is primarily transmitted between people through contact routes and respiratory droplets. This phenomenon connects us all at the same time as keeping us separate.
Our skin contains millions of sensory receptors that gather information related to touch, pressure, temperature, and pain signals. The receptors then transmit the information to the brain for processing and reaction.
In tough times, we turn to the people we love for their human touch. For some people, a hug could mean severe illness or worse during this time. Covid has forced us to be creative with how we simulate touch. Plastic hug contraptions and extended arm devices have been invented. Computer screens are kissed goodnight as we take Zoom to bed. We are communicating through an exchange of images and messages that are now transmitted through waves of electrically broadcasted signals.
Eczema is a prolific condition that runs in my family. It exists predominantly on our hands. When they aren’t enflamed and itchy, they are deeply indented and coarse. Constant sanitising and hand washing with chemical soap means that my hands are suffering. They are stripped of their natural comfort and ability to express.
To produce this piece, my hands were smothered in green acrylic paint then photographed in black and white. The texture of my skin mirrors the unhealthy appearance of scorched wood – a sight we have become accustomed to as a result of frequent forest fires and climate change. This triptych is a communication tool, a transmission. It is an imagined form of sign language that links the two biggest global catastrophes through the portrayal of a personal crisis.