i was invited by GemArts, an organisation based in the North East of England, to create an instalation where a shipping container was transformed, both the exterior and interor, as part of a live event broadcast on Good Friday on BBC1. The theme reflected the idea of ‘isolation’. I painted all sides of the container, and the inside featured a soundscape i created that was played on loop for the live audience to engage with, along with lighting that was focussed on a lone figure position slumped in the corner. Shipping containers are used to bring material goods to us from distant lads, modern electronics, exotic foods.. probably everything we own is manufactured abroad and brought to us here. But people also make the harrowing journey in such containers across the sea’s searching for a better life and many even die in the process. The theme of isolation was that of the one of the stations of Jesus in the Christian perspective, hence this commision for Good Friday. I wanted to explore what that means today for everyday people. I invited local young people to scrawl onto the inside of the walls, what they would want to say if they were stuck inside of this container. The art on the exterior featured lyrics from a poem written by the local Reverend Tracy Reynolds, whos daughter suffered in a fatal car accident which lead to her losing her legs. She wrote a poem about her feelings around isolation.
