Chanced Impressions



Black Card, Screen printing ink, Aluminium Forensic Powder, 84 x 59cm
Edition of 5+2AP (2017
)

‘Chanced Impressions' explores current human ideology by challenging and subverting the fingerprint - an innately boiolocical part of being human. We live in a world where we blindly accept the fact that mass-control is becoming the norm. This body of work attempts to subvert and challenge this idea by removing a large oval from the middle of my fincerprints - in turn eliminating the element that could be analysed and used for surveillance or control.

Chanced Impressions removes the Power and prevalence of these ways of controlling, taking the fingerprint back and turning it into something that is organic and human again. The five works are screen-printed with an ink which was imbued with aluminium forensic powder used to find fingerprints on crime scenes, creating a duality between the fingerprint and the ink. The fingerprint itself is unrecognisable, yet it is reproduced with powder that was solely created to find such prints. 

Chanced Impressions poses important questions about immigration, mass-control and surveillance. Is the technology in itself oppressive or is the problem in the application of the technology? Are these methods malignant, an invasion of self or necessary in a globalised world? Where is the line between organism and data?