Outbreak, 2020

Outbreak, 2020
HD video with sound
1 min 25 sec (looped)

Outbreak (2020) is a short, looping video work, depicting Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 – 2022, attached to a non-invasive ventilator, lying in a hospital bed. The work was made as a response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and is inspired by Johnson’s seven day stay in April 2020 at St Thomas’ Hospital in London whilst suffering from COVID-19.

During his stay, and for some time afterwards, many were suspicious of Johnson actually having had the disease, with conspiracy theorists wondering whether the incident had been a public relations stunt to reassure the public that COVID-19 was easily treatable.

Many of the doctors and nurses who cared for Johnson were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and no photographers were allowed to document Johnson’s stay at St Thomas’. Outbreak, therefore, depicts a moment in time that may or may not have happened, and is emblematic of Johnson’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

Outbreak has been included in the following exhibitions:

– Changemakers: Ways of Protest. At Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK, 28th November 2020 – 6th March 2021.
– S.P.A.M. Spreads, selected by Sarah Bouttell, Okocha Obasi and Katharine Welsh. Printed publication at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, S Shore Rd, Gateshead, UK, November 2020.