#PUBLICSERVICEANNOUNCEMENT
#PUBLICSERVICEANNOUNCEMENT was shown within the bathrooms of Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool) The Photographers Gallery (London) and Photofusion (London) as they reopened their doors to visitors after Lockdown. In its original form it was displayed as guerilla paste up on St James Street in Liverpool. The site was chosen due to its proximity to the first warm water public wash house which was set up by Kitty Wilkinson in response to the 1832 Cholera Epidemic.
Installation image Open Eye Gallery (C) Sorcha Boyle 2021
During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic we were required to consider handwashing as a personal act for communal protection. This series of photographs draws on diagrams and instructions from The World Health Organisation and UK Government, instructing us how to wash our hands.
Working in isolation from my bedroom, over the first UK lockdown, I considered the ritual of handwashing. Casting my own hands - turning each moment into sculptures made of soap and copper. Together they form a visceral representation of the purposefully “neutral” diagrams. Looking to impart the historical context behind washing and societal construct to cleanliness.