ISOLATION SPRING, 2020-2021
There are so many different circumstances that can lead an artist to be isolated from society. These circumstances might come in very timely, but could also be quite a burden. As a result, an artist has to adapt or even change the usual ways of working in order to continue making art. It can also quite as well be almost impossible to stay creative during such times.
There is, however, certain challenge or even opportunity to be explored, and creating art during a time of crisis can be something very unique. Of course, the actual ways in which it manifests is very personal, and different individuals will experience isolation in their own way, so the creativity expressed will be also unique.
For some, isolation is a choice and a way to retreat from society to focus on making art. "Solitude, even prolonged solitude, can only be of very great benefit." Said Louise Bourgeois. This is continued very well by a different quote: "Isolation means I have the opportunity to distil what concerns me and what I want to make and do. I believe isolation is a chance for all artists to disrupt and evolve their practices, which constitute being a working contemporary artist in and out of the mainstream arts industries. I am autistic and isolation is a symptomatic issue for me, isolation is part of my life and consequently the question is one I constantly confront. This is not a choice. I think this typifies what the word means to me. Solitude is when I can make a decision to distance myself physically and mentally from external factors." (Anna Farley)
In fact, solitude is a topic quite dearly but also dreadfully familiar to me, as growing up young aspiring artist I lived through a certain period of time where my native country went through an economic and energetic blockade, which led to people having very limited basic resources and going through quite some hardship. Through those times, I learned to cope with the situation by creating my own world and using very limited resources and also realizing that isolation can help me concentrate on things I would like to express.
While for a completely different reason, none the least dreadful one – Covid-19 pandemic – I knew how to turn the involuntary isolation into an opportunity to create, and do that with things that surround me and quite limited resources. It is often such times that can help an artist to crystallize inspiration from those simple yet meaningful objects, surroundings, emotions that are directly available to us but often go unnoticed in the routine of “regular” life.
