Freak Show
In “Regarding The Pain Of Others” Susan Sontag speaks of the history of violent imagery in modern culture as well as the pleasure people get from other’s suffering. This project aims to play on those points as well as human curiosity.
Appropriating images sourced from the internet, “Freak Show” explores medical abnormalities often associated with news headline such as “US teen survives spear through brain”.
X ray images are usually confidential, used by hospitals to assess injuries, on some occasions these are posted to the internet, maybe as bragging rights for people who have survived strange injuries against the odds or perhaps to quench the curiosity of the public, or probably to create a dramatic headline to drive site visits.
By appropriating and re presenting these images a comment can be made on key areas such as why they are posted, the removal of privacy in the digital age and the pleasure people get from watching others suffer.