The Upper Hand (2015-16), 3 mins 59 secs, single screen HD video for mobile installation, loop
While all the hands remain anonymous, The Upper Hand suggests a hidden narrative addressing the hands’ role in the unconscious gesturing and the fine line between ownership and protection, as well as being a playful take on the technology of touch screen. Made using artist’s own family archive images it aims to question the hierarchies inherent in holiday photographs made apparent through our involuntary positioning of hands towards the ‘other’ – the affected subject, whether it is a human or non-human animal. Adorned in fur-like material the mobile device becomes a desirable object one is drawn to stroke and hold on to continuing the chain reaction of the possessive relationship our hands give away in these images.
Below: view of The Upper Hand at Whitstable Biennale Satellite Programme 2016.
The Upper Hand was shown as part of Visions Symposium at The Nunnery Gallery on 12 November 2016.
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