Covid 19: Home

In the first months of isolation, my children and I embarked on collaborative project to develop a portrait series. As the reality of the lockdown sinked in, as a family we tried to come to terms with the new normal. The kids were at home 24/7, their schools were closed and any social and sporting activities got canceled. All the interaction with their friends was confined to the occasional chaotic conversation through a computer screen or gaming headset, and the daily chats with the next door neighbours through the back garden fence. Watching my pre-teenage son and my nearly 5 year old daughter having their childhood disrupted by the rapid proliferation of a threatening new virus, triggered unfamiliar anxieties. Using an old Kodak Carousel slide film projector – for years standing as a decorative object on top of a book shelf, and our home as a canvas, we incorporated images of faraway places into scenes of the children’s daily routine. A photograph of Laguna Colorada in the idyllic Atacama desert filling our sitting room during a late night family disco party or the bubbling boiling mud of a geyser in the Bolivian Altiplano revealed on the bathroom tiles during bath time, provided some distraction from the new uncharted reality and prompt enthusiasm and sense of wonder in the kids. As a parent, somehow I feel it helped me cope with some new anxieties triggered by these mad and unprecedented times we are living in.

Oliver gazing at an image from Santa Cruz del Campo projected onto the attic bedroom ceiling.

Millie taking a bath with an image of bubbling boiling mud of a geyser in the Bolivian Altiplano projected onto the bathroom tiles.

Oliver with a slide of Laguna Colorada lake in the Atacama Desert project onto the living room.

Millie with a slide of flamingos on a lake projected onto her bedroom walls.

Millie and Oliver with slide of wildlife in the Bolivian Amazon projected onto the office.

Projections in times of isolation

Millie playing among the image of rainforest treetops projected onto the sitting room.

Oliver playing Xbox with a slide of the silver mines in Potosi projected onto his bedroom walls.

Millie with slide of sulfur lake in Salar de Uyuni project onto her bedroom.

Oliver with slide of Salar de Uyuni projected onto the bathroom tiles.

Oliver doing his school homework with slide of Atacama Desert projected onto the kitchen wall.

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