//rewind
an interactive audio installation
in collaboration with Alexandru Berceanu
part of White Imprint Exhibition
Context & Concept
In a striking resolution, in 2022 the Supreme Court decision in Roe vs Wade was overruled by a new settlement finding that the previous one falsely claimed that the right to abortion is guaranteed by the constitution through the right to privacy. The decision re-opened the road for states to prosecute again medical personnel for performing abortion surgery.
The debate in court was tape-recorded, with the historical attorney of the appellants, Sarah Weddington, aged 26, in her first trial before a court, asking for the right of women to decide over their own bodies and lives.
In Rewind, a bot is reading the 1973 decision of the supreme court: “For the period of pregnancy prior to this "compelling" point, the attending physician, in consultation with his patient, is free to determine, without regulation by the State, that, in his medical judgment, the patient's pregnancy should be terminated” which is played on tape recording and is fading into the recording of the 2022 decision: “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives”, read again by a bot.
The installation uses a proximity sensor to start the tape recorders. The messages are played in a loop being automatically transferred from one tape to the other, ever fading in the process. Click here for video.
