SYNOPSIS
‘Not Dead Yet’
This work is a part of my continuing exploration of the possibilities to make the political immediate, confronting issues of contemporary and future interest. Everything is political, the personal particularly so when the direct effects of government policy are displacement, debt, and death.
Rob Marsh is already preparing to move from his home of 27 years, with the help of his children, as a result of the so-called bedroom tax and other changes to the benefits system on which he is reliant in order to survive. The very recent ‘Bedroom Tax Suicide’ of Stephanie Bottrill reminds us of the impact of uncertainty, precarity over one’s future. The instability of that safe, secure place that we often hope to have and call home. A structure which encompasses the depths of our past and the minute-to-minute realities of our present, which can tell a visitor so much.
By presenting us with the life and hope of a stranger, the political here is implicit in the work and our own subjectivities in reaction to the images, where context can solidify or unmake our opinions. The universality of the importance of home, family, past, present and future may be apprehended.
