CHRIS FREMANTLE

Goldsmiths CCA.

Why is it so difficult to be anything but fit and able? It is obviously made into a particular hell in this society, but it is more than just institutions. Why is anything other than fitness and ableness so hard to deal with? Why is that being resilient and having good coping mechanisms equates with normal – the challenges are made to be invisible – it is more than just coping and getting on with life.

There is a fabulous moment in Jamila Prowse’s film – a series of photos with associated narrative description and contextualisation. Prowse describes how their life, as someone whose conditions mean they spend a year in bed, drifts and breaks off and ends up so far away no-one can connect. It is a beautifully awful evocation.

This work is just 8 photos all of which would be thrown out under normal circumstances because of heads cut off, key features being out of focus, and general inconsequentialness, but each is an opportunity to discuss life, each has the right characteristics to deal with the life of a failing body and disarrayed mind.

Another work that has that everyday fear written through it is Bella Milroy’s. In addition to the four DWP envelopes is an audio description which brilliantly emphasises the banality of the material form. Brown paper envelop presented portrait orientation. Held vertical. Torn down left side. Word processed text which reads ‘Important Information Please Read’. Envelope is covered in hand written text in graphite pencil.

The text describes the impact on the recipient of the Department of Work and Pensions changing from distinctive brown envelopes to generic white envelopes.