Project Info:
Digital. Human. Migration. (working title)
A piece of multi-modal fiction set in a world where the only way of travelling is to physically convert your self into digital currency and then be transferred. The value of your passport determines your ‘exchange rate’ and therefore how you are valued at your destination country. A system where people are literally treated as numbers. Our passports are in fact already ‘valued’ using a Visa Free Score (VFS). For example, a Belgium passport has a score of 185 and a Russian passport 118, however Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan passports only score in the 20’s.
The work will reference migration, crypto-currency, teleportation through quantum entanglement and our evolution into ‘digital’ humans. It aims to question the financial value of human beings, our national identities and the prints importance of certain cities as financial centres.
Artist Info:
I am a visual artist producing semi-fictional projects that combine original photography, text and collage.
Whilst a professional BMX rider, I started to photograph the BMX/Skateboard culture and eventually became a commercial photographer. What I liked most about photography was its unpredictability and how black and white images close the visual gap with typography and illustration. I eventually developed my commercial practice into an artistic one.
I had a residency at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and produced a book inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Images were not staged but they did not pertain to be truthful either. As part of my M.A. I developed Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1878 story ‘The Cave of Fancy’ into a 300+ page photo-text novel. In April 2019 I received a commission from Ffotogallery & the Welsh Assembly.
Inspiration comes from literature, history and illustration, particularly work with a surrealist and gothic flavour. My projects result in narratives with gaps for readers to fill in. I believe the entertaining and accessible character of fiction gives it power in engaging a wide variety of people in art projects and the issues they raise.
Currently I am finishing a fictional project set in a very non-digital late 80’s culture and also researching a new project about migration, crypto-currency, teleportation through quantum entanglement and our evolution into ‘digital’ humans. I have recently been awarded the 2021 Dee Valley author/artist in residence commission.