MDF, steel, 100% British lambswool, thread
2.5x2.1x1.5 m
2023
‘Body Double: A Performance of Care’ is a body of work that exist as photography, performance, installation and sculpture. Taking reference from photographs and prints produced during the time of British colonisation of India, where native bodies were measured and studied against a standard backdrop of a 2x2 inch ‘Lamprey’s’ grid in poses that suggest hostility, control and captivity, this work reimagines those bodies by using my own in gestures that demonstrate rest, comfort, embrace and release as an act, defiance or performance of/in care. As lying down is considered a private act, ideas of spectatorship are examined through the positionality of the installation that further explore the liminal space between public and private, reverence and irreverence, revealing and disclosing, comfort and discomfort. Further implying the relationship between the domestic and the clinic, the work explores spaces where knowledges about bodies are produced and disseminated. The grids are woven in Britain using 100% British lambswool and is soft to the touch, further exploring the relationship between labour, body and haptics.
