Pandemic Evolution: Vol. 1, Days 1-100
by saturnwolfe7
See below for a call for poems related to this album.
On March 11, 2020, The World Health Organization officially announced the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic. "Pandemic Evolution" is, therefore, a series of daily photographs to mark my time as this global crisis progresses.
For a bi-polar artist with Parkinson's Disease and PTSD, this project is about counting the days for myself, marking time, and recording my moods and thoughts.
The styles of art that I count as major influences include surrealism, minimalism, and assemblage. Items used for these pieces are objects I have collected over the years, because I thought they were interesting or they had sentimental value. I also inherited a great many of them from my parents who grew up during the Great Depression and believed in saving everything, for its potential reuse.
April 26, 2020 note:
I am starting to get a better sense of what the Pandemic Evolution photos are at their essence. Not only am I counting days and deaths, but I am also putting little pieces of my life and the lives of my parents in a sort of evolving, daily shrine. It has become a ritual, a tiny prayer to ennoble the massive changes we are facing. And, true to that idea, I am giving away or pitching many of the items I shoot. I have saved them for years or even decades with an artistic eye to using them "someday". Well, "someday" is now.
May 20, 2020 note:
71 days have passed since the official declaration, and it is all starting to blur. In fact, it has been 119 days since China first placed the city of Wuhan (where the virus may have originated) under draconian lockdown, when it became apparent there was a global threat. And there are many more days ahead. Now, as I scroll through the photos, I have better sense of what the number of days really is. The focus is a bit sharper. The numbers of those afflicted are becoming statistics. And with governments all over the world manipulating those numbers for whatever means, the number of days may be the most accurate number we have.
May 30, 2020 note:
The old tool box that serves as a stage for the Pandemic Evolution photos has an interior space of approximately 1.25 cubic feet. Every morning after I have arranged the objects in that space, after I have decided how it should be lit, and after I have fixed my iPhone to the tripod, I sit down. I sit down in an old wooden chair and peer at the phone screen. I see what I have created. I may get up and make little changes to the placement of the objects. I will adjust the tripod. Then, when I feel I have a glimpse of something true, I gently press the shutter button.
Thus, for that very brief moment in time, I have total control of 1.25 cubic feet of space in my world.
A book is in the works for photos from this album and poetry. If you would like to submit a poem about one of these photographs, click on this link:
sheilanagigblog.com/call-for-submissions-an-ekphrastic-re...
