Lifeline

Back to Photo Installations

Overview

2009. Mixed media installation. Size: 3x 2.5m long x 1.2m high

Lifeline undertakes the challenging but much needed analysis of HIV in adloescents. Its structure is a physical timeline that chronicles a young womans life from birth until the present day, aged 23. At the age of fifteen she contracted HIV and today she is living a postive life on ARVs. Her story exposes how HIV affected her at different points in her life and how that affected her. These facts are intertwined with other life markers that are more common in adolescents like finishing school, when she got her first boyfriend, and family trauma such as her father dying. She also speaks of how her sexual habits have changed post diagnosis and how her sexual partners have responded to her being HIV positive. Following the story are scanned pages from her only photo album. These photographs depict her life as any other person enjoys to recollect their past. The aim of adding these everyday images was to humanize HIV and show that it can affect anyone, and that people with HIV can still enjoy a normal life. Lifeline in its current form was commissioned to be apart of the international exhibition Not Alone curated by Carol Brown. Its original concept was first presented at the World Aids conference 2009 where the participant joined me to advocate next to her story.