Scanner/scans/exam/examine

This installation consists of two split videos playing simulteanously, with a seperate soundtrack and spoken word poem ‘Feel your pulse’, is heard within the space. The work here is a meditation of self-checking and medical imaging, and was made very shortly after the artist had undergone an extended period of treatment following a diagnoses with Hodgkins Lymphoma. The work here is a direct response to that experience, and the confusing relationship to the body that is created through medical imaging, and a mix of too much and too little information about your own physiology. The video includes close up photographs of scars, footage of the artist scanning herself with a hand held scanner, the results of those scans. These images are flash on and off screen, along with bright boxes of light which when projected, mimic the light from the recycled nhs x-ray display box mounted on one wall. The spoken word poetry intoned at intervals in the space acts sounds concerned and kindly, and oppressive, asking questions like, “is your head hot? have you had enough water?” and giving out a stream of instructions like “cut out sugar, cut out salt, cut out alcohol, give up caffine after 6, give up screens after 6…”.