My entry for the This Human World film festival poster open call

I was drawn to the idea of blurring boundaries and of a "fluid space of innumerable possibilities and overlaps" that was suggested as a starting point in the callout. Firstly, this made me think of the human body as an organism that is completely interconnected with its environment - air flows in and out through the lungs, our pores absorb and excrete oils - this has been drawn into sharper focus during the COVID-19 crisis where we have become more paranoid about the porous nature of our body, and its vulnerability. Secondly, this idea intersects with identity and our sense of being-in-the-world: identity can be thought of as not a fixed point, but something fluid, changing, responsive; enmeshed with the structures and systems we grow and live within. We are emotionally impacted by the contact we have with our world, and our subjectivity can be vulnerable to threat in much the same way as our physical body is. News and social media seep into our being and change its constitution; fear and anxiety course through us like electric currents. All of these notions about subjecthood, identity and vulnerability feed in to issues of human rights: how bodies are governed and protected (and by whom); how expressions of identity are allowed to breathe, or are restricted, depending on the conditions that surround the person.

Method:

This image was made using a combination of handmade marbled paper and digital techniques in Photoshop.