216 Westbound (2014)

Shona Illingworth is a Danish/Scottish artist who works across a range of mediums, including sound, film, video, photography and drawing. She creates immersive video and multi-channel sound installations, exploring memory and situations of social tension and trauma.

216 Westbound examines the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on John Tulloch, a survivor of the suicide attacks that took place in London on 7 July 2005. A photograph of Tulloch, taken shortly after the attack, was used by the media against his will to promote new anti-terror legislation. The assault on his body and sense of self was further exacerbated through the subsequent global media dissemination of an image of his injured body. His image was used to promote an amendment to the terrorism act 2006 that would allow for detention without charge, a move that he strenuously opposed. Through disorientating visuals, blurred and layered, Illingworth presents the tremors of trauma experienced after the bombings, interspersed with the burdening pressure of state power on one person’s sense of space.

The film enters the Imperial War Museum’s collection, an institution that explicitly addresses the subject of conflict. Illingworth’s film presents the personal perspective of a civilian individual caught up in the indirect consequences of a distant war.

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