FIRST AGREEMENTS

During my first meeting with Kelvin and Viv I realised I didn't really know much about Hepatitis C, a few ideas I retain is that it can be only transmited through blood to blood contact, it seems the virus is very strong and can survive days outside the human body, which helps the disease to be very contagious. It seems it is the fith disease that causes more deaths in the UK and the number of people infected is increasing due to the lack of awareness.

I show them some of my previous art works and they look quite surprised, my art is odd, it is fine, I already know. Kelvin says he knows nothing about art but he thinks I try to think outside the box, which I am quite happy to hear, I also think Viv has a sort of natural understanding of what art is. As part of our project "Perspectives: Art, Liver Diseases and Me" I need to keep a diary of our meetings. As Kelvin likes writing and he does well, I suggest him to open a blog so that we can build this diary together and share it with whoever may be interested in the project or just wants to know a bit more about Hepatitis C, and this is how "My Hepatitis C Journey" comes to life.

We talk about how the project will be developed, I ask them until what extent they would like to be involved, they say until the end. I include Vivien of course as I think she is an essential part of Kelvin's journey through Hepatitis C and through life. I tell them about the concept I want to use as starting point for the project which is the idea of fragility, Kelvin explains to me how fragility doesn't represent his vision of the disease at all. He has never felt fragile, he has been very lucky to have so much support from Vivien and the rest of his family and friends, in fact he gives support to other patients too. Although my idea of fragility had more to do with the instant in which something seems to be perfect and suddenly breaks and cannot be repaired, or it can but will always leave a scar, as when you work with clay, you can spend weeks working on a piece, drying it very slowly, firing it with care, but when you open the kiln, the crack is just there, looking at you, confronting yourself with your own imperfect immateriality, or when the piece falls down to the floor and cracks in a fraction of a second.

We keep on talking and we agree that Kelvin's vision of the disease is more about the process, like a journey that will lead him from darkness to light, the way gets lighter at some points but then leads Kelvin into darkness again, however, in the end, there should be a permanent light. Vivien agrees to see all their adventure through Hepatitis C as a path, which she compares to travelling on a train.

The three of us at the studio at Royal College of Art (RCA)