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'notes on symptoms', 2020, 12' 51'' HD video and sound.
'notes on symptoms' was made during a period in which I experienced total loss of taste and smell. These symptoms significantly affected my relationship to my environment and induced feelings of being outside of my experience.
Filmed in around a shared house in North London, the work is partly a first-person account and partly a collective portrait during the first UK Lockdown. At times the distinctions of individual and group become entangled in the loss of sensations experienced, and the notion of being an 'expert' of your own experience is explored.
In the edit, sound and visuals break away from one another in an attempt to speak about this separation between internal landscape and external conditions. The voiceover is recorded at the time of symptoms, with the visuals shot thereafter and arranged around this as an axis point. The work in this case, becomes a form of 'evidence', to the real-time embodied experiences.
These symptoms of loss of taste and smell were never diagnosed as Covid-19. Tests at the time were not readily available, and calling 111 involved ridiculous waiting times. I was fortunate enough not be hospitalised and to have no serious long lasting damage.
My sense of smell has never returned to normal however, and particular odours, such as the smell of onions, have become a placeholder for all odours connected to the body.
Presentations:
Kinesthesia Festival (selected artist) July 16-18th, 2021, Middlesex University in partnership with Independent Dance.
Film Free & Easy: 'Oven Ready', August 27th, 20201, online.
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‘notes on symptoms’ (video stills), 2020, 12'51’’ HD video and sound.