BYPASS
2019
Sound, inkjet print on Ilford Ilfotex.
5’15.
Bypass describes a moment of guilty decision-making, fractured and obsessively replayed. Hinging around an accident that the artist witnessed and did not intervene in while in Bali, it questions moral obligations around observing and turning away from disaster. The work uses binaural audio and narrative dissonance to create an immersive, alarming interrogation of the role of the bystander, and asks the listener to cast their own judgement on the actions of the artist. Bypass tracks the collision of narratives of holiday bliss and sudden disaster, uncertainty around cultural expectations, fear of the abject body, plain old shock and the number of steps it takes to make a decision. Exploring participation both as an action and an obligation, Bypass extrapolates guilt and implicates the listener in the decision to intervene.