In works such as traces I questioned my ability to accurately record with one singular photograph a complicated situation with multiple perspectives as shown in the work by the narrow gaze which keeps its eyes on the ground.  This initial doubt towards the photograph as document has remained a concern unpicked by a process that functions through repetition.

 

 

In this process there is the incorporation of gestural marks as in drawing as narrative, appropriation as in the collage series as well as the use of the vernacular. In doing this an element of chance or expressiveness linked to an imperfect act of making or loss of control is produced that undermines the stability and status of the technical image, unsettling hierarchies. A tension is brought to the surface (Unit 2/Unit 3) that is further discussed in gesture and appropriation where mark making is conceptualised. The photograph is taken not as a window onto scene as Villiem Flusseur denies, but as an artefact whose layers are peeled back by a process of addition and subtraction. The work obtains a meta quality, that has two aspects; (i) one inward focused level where the elements within the composition are changed and (ii) one amplified level as the system of reproduction is used as a way to modify the work. This stands for the idea of a reading that is always developing and in transition.

 

 

The phrase The Migrant Image relates to this journey in two separate ways. At the beginning an investigation of how the types of images that circulate portray undocumented migration. Secondly, with regards to the system of dissemination, where and how do images circulate? What does this movement do to the image and its reception?

 

 

Engagement with spectatorship was directed towards breaking with the artwork as spectacle. In previous works such as Native Species the audience is asked to question their active participation in the work through overt manipulation. This is currently redirected towards the staging of the work and its performative presence within a specific space. This is done by placing attention on the unfolding of time on viewing, where static objects display a sense of movement and change within their composition or through interaction with light, differentiating between site responsive / installation & virtual / physical.

 

 

Singularity and Multiplicity are present simultaneously in as much as the images are singularly personal. But it is better to say that I am able to read them as a specific network which forms meaning through memory or they take me on a personal reverie. Yet once the images are subjected to this modus operandi and displayed in the public they become abstract and general, dissolving into a myriad of possible connections.