In The Trip, Coates worked with patients at St. John’s Hospice in London. Wondering what skills and reflections on the world an artist might offer to people in the final stages of their lives, he asked patients, ‘What can I do for you?’. Many proposals emerged and Coates chose to fulfil the instructions from one patient, the late Alex H., to travel to the Amazon Rainforest and ask the inhabitants of a remote village a set of pre-arranged questions. On his return, Coates recounted his experiences to Alex H. from memory, written notes and audio recordings.

The video shows the same fixed camera view of the hospice room and the street outside both before the trip and on Coates’s return. Coates and Alex H. can be heard in conversation off camera.