Contagion hands attempts to visualize the hidden virus, the weight of anxiety it invokes and the untouchable nature of living through the pandemic. The images attempt to both acknowledge the situation but to use materials more often associated with the instant moment and rubbing out, in a subconscious desire to make it all disappear.

Materiality has always been important in my practice. I have worked with clay, glass, film, bacteria and light, but photography and image making in some form or other remains central.

Before the lockdowns I had been working on the transferal of light data from the other end of the world. Everything stopped and along with everyone else, my world closed in. Feeling out of control, I was drawn to a similar lack of control inherent in using the lo-tech instant film – it fulfilled a desire to tread lightly, to see what the image produced with minimal intervention. I often want the film to stop developing half way through as I rub and attempt to stop the inevitable image emerging. The materiality of the resulting film image, in combination with the everyday materials that surrounded me, chalk, tippex, pencil, ink, gloves, became my tool kit in exploring the limits of bodily and psychological space in the last year.