The Tourist Administrator of Pitcairn Island, 2016

Pitcairn, a UK territory island in the Pacific with fewer than 50 residents and no airport, faces growing isolation due to a reduction in ship visits. This moving image work explores the intersection of geographical and virtual distances through a low-resolution JPEG sent by the tourist administrator of Pitcairn Island.

Projected onto a clay surface sculpted by hand, the image is reworked and distorted, transforming the digital into the tactile. The landscape depicted is 9,000 miles from England, with the JPEG having travelled via satellite signals between the footprints of Galaxy 18 and NOC, moving from west to east. The video’s audio layers a dialogue between the artist and Melva, the island’s tourist administrator, reading their email correspondence to bridge the virtual and physical realms.

Through this work, the artist reflects on the critical narrative of connectedness—or its lack—while imagining life in a less connected world. The reworking of the projected image further troubles ideas of place and elsewhere, while highlighting the limits and exchanges inherent in our technological climate, particularly concerning data costs and labour demands. The work also considers the digital image as a material, shaped by technology that relies on raw earth material itself.

This project raises questions about the artist’s role in socially engaged art, particularly when working with remote communities where resources are limited. The artist’s performed position as a “socially engaged artist”—navigating privileged access to global networks—reflects the complexities of colonial legacies and the ethical dimensions of such engagements. It challenges the role of the artist in both well-connected urban centres and isolated locales, exploring how socially engaged practice can address or inadvertently reinforce these disparities.