About The Artwork

'I was lucky enough to be invited to work at the British Pavilion in Venice in 2019 as a research fellow. During my time there, I took a lot of video footage of the city and the canals and mused about identity. I worked in the pavilion for a month and while there felt completely alone, although surrounded by many people who became good friends of mine. I felt like an outsider but this was an oddly freeing sensation - it wasn't distressing or uncomfortable. I was simply just passing through.

I knew no Italian and got lost frequently in the tiny streets of Venice. I've been in the process of making a number of video works that explore these feelings of alienation and displacement and ruminate on personal identity removed from place and familiar culture. I had this footage hanging about my camera since 2019 and had planned on making the work long before lockdown, but the yearning for travel, the claustrophobia and the disconnect I feel from my past life finally shook me into action and the work came forward.'

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- Catherine McLaughlin