Whenever you watch the news, a newsreader hands over to some sort of correspondent. Invariably, that correspondent is twinned with a map of where they happen to be reporting from. Given the rolling nature of news these days, it came to my attention that certain geographic shapes have become loaded with certain connotations. You see North Korea… what’s he up to now? Afghanistan…when will this end?? Myanmar…how many forced out today? You can begin to predict the story before the reporter opens their mouth. In terms of the Western media, each disaster zone has one pressing matter and it comes and goes as time progresses.
“States of Affairs” is about how these said places fall in and out of ‘newsworthy consciousness’ but are in many ways, interconnected.
The gallery refers to the moment I thought of it (when the Russian annexation of Crimea was mentioned again) to the finished piece. I thought that it would be interesting to show the evidence of progression, given that this piece is essentially about time.