John

2019

2 - Channel HD Video, 29mins 46 secs

John tells the story of a young male patient of a psychiatric hospital, who witnesses the death of another Black male patient at the hands of white staff.

The work blurs the boundary between reality and fiction. It is a fictional work but the murder that John witnesses, is based on real-life cases of Black men with mental illnesses who have died from excessive restraint holds of staff in a psychiatric hospitals and the police e.g. David ‘Rocky’ Bennett, Christopher Alder, Olaseni Lewis, Roger Sylvester and Sean Rigg. Some of the imagery used in the video references witness statements and video evidence cited in criminal court cases and inquiries into their respective deaths. In John, Anderson also uses ‘reenactment’ as a device to layer the work with archival imagery of the policing of Black bodies, demonstrations and riots, campaigns for justice, artwork from Black liberation movements and restraint practices.

The work was commissioned by Block 336 in partnership with Black Cultural Archives with support from Arts Council England, Elephant Trust, Lux, Spike Island, Black Thrive and Lambeth Mind.