An interpretation of personal experience and perception during the Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccination period in New Zealand.
An exploration of anxiety, ritual, and perception during the Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccination period in New Zealand between 2021 and 2022. Working through photography, video, and text, the work reflects my experience of public health messaging, behavioural instruction, and the psychological atmosphere of the time.
Central to the project is a 12-minute video documenting repetitive hand-cleaning gestures, accompanied by a text-to-speech audio reading drawn from official New Zealand government Covid-19 communications, which at the time listed known side effects alongside the slogan ‘safe and effective’.
The pairing of automated language with habitual movement foregrounds repetition, compliance, and heightened bodily awareness, allowing institutional messaging to be experienced as pressure rather than information.
The still images operate alongside the video as visual fragments of the same environment — signage, symbols, bodies, and domestic materials — forming a personal record of how authority, care, fear, and uncertainty were perceived and internalised during this period.
