Art in Isolation

Building connections through creativity

With the imposition of provincial emergency measures over the past several weeks, the vibrant arts and culture scene of the County has ground to a virtual halt. Community theatre has gone silent, art galleries have closed their doors. Yet all across the County, life and art goes on in isolation. Writers are working on their craft, spinners and weavers still spin and weave, knitters knit, photographs are made, and paint still finds its way onto canvas. How the current pandemic and lockdown shapes those artistic creations is the focus of a new project called Art in Isolation, organized by the art collective Department Of Illumination. The idea came about when photographer Mehdi Agahi was self-isolating for 14 days after returning to the County from a trip abroad. “I found myself at home in isolation, and it was very shocking how things just changed,” he said. “I had a feeling of helplessness, and I think a lot of us are experiencing that, and we all feel there is a sense of loss and there’s this big transition that we don’t know how things are going to look like in the future.” In the past, to challenge himself and to strengthen his creative process, Agahi took on a 30-day project where he would create and share a photograph each day. “This was a great way for me to get going and get back on track and connect with my friends, so I had the idea to do it again. But something about this was different, because of how equally affected all of us in the County are, on a larger scale, and I wanted to do something that involves people and that I can share,” he said.

Agahi has been living in the County for about three years and quickly became involved in the arts culture here. He was part of the MUSE art collaborative in 2018, and had his work exhibited at Maison Depoivre. He won a Jurors Award for his self-portrait Quiet Warrior at the 2019 Art in The County. He approached Krista Dalby with the idea of a wider art challenge, and they started planning how to get this project going. They decided to start a Facebook group and invite local artists to join in and then let the project grow organically. They asked participants to submit artwork in any medium in one of four subjects: Self-portrait; Still life with quarantine; The view from here; and Companions. The project was officially launched on April 22, and will run until May 22. So far, over 200 people have joined the Facebook group, with over 150 joining on the first day. “There are so many artists and creators in the County, and we realized this is a remarkable time that we live in right now, and I think it will be very worthwhile recording this experience and seeing how we all lived through this time,” said Agahi. “There is so much participation, and we didn’t expect it to be like that. At the same time, the whole point of a collaboration is to inspire each other and lift each other up a bit. I feel inspired every day. It’s what makes me get up in the morning.”

So far, with the project less than a week old, there have been dozens of submissions. They have mostly been photographs or paintings, but there have been a couple of video entries as well as a sculpture of a robot created by the seven-year- old artist known as Bassie. “There’s no limitation on what you submit. It just has to be a work that you made and it expresses your experience during this time of isolation,” said Agahi. “So maybe we are using this coronavirus pandemic as a muse, as how this affected your experience. To me it’s about resetting your intentions to be creative again. We hope this group will bring communication and conversation, and I’m hoping there will be some great creations as a result of this collaboration.”

One of the artists contributing to this project is Dianne Kehoe, who won the inaugural Maison Depoivre Award last year at Art in the County. She has had to change her art practise from large acrylics to small watercolours, partly due to having to provide care for both her parents and partly as a result of the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She spends a great deal of time travelling to visit her parents, who are about a five-hour drive away, and she has little opportunity to paint, but she does try to do a small watercolour every day. She is grateful to be included in the project, since painting and sketching provides a welcome respite from her day-to-day cares. “This is my joy, my meditation,” she said. “It grounds me. It takes all the other thoughts and worries and throws it away for maybe half an hour. I just try to bring gratitude, warmth and an expression for joy in colour and in line, always trying to find some more positive thoughts to put down. It’s been good to be a part of Art in Isolation, and I can share my watercolours, hoping that it brings joy to my friends and connections on Facebook in looking at them.”

Eventually after this pandemic is over, Agahi and Dalby hope to have an actual art show in a gallery, as opposed to just seeing the work online. “We all know nothing lasts forever, and hopefully next year it will be a memory of us living through the pandemic and managing it. But a lot has happened, and I think we are all experiencing a lot of turbulence,” said Agahi. “During the hard times we are all finding this very challenging, and creating art is a great way to build resilience, and we’ve seen examples of that throughout history. In this day and age the technology is there and we can connect, we can communicate, we can inspire each other and use these tools to heal each other. I’m hoping this project does that during this time.”

To see the artworks, login to Facebook and search for “Art in Isolation PEC”.