Everything Is Different Now

Curator’s Pam Marlene Taylor and Kaylan Buteyn created 12 virtual exhibitions in the initial 12 weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in the US. As the realization dawned that weeks were morphing into months or years aheads, the duo initiated a COVID-safe artist residency and gallery. This unique space offered artists and their families the opportunity to stay in isolation while still reaping the benefits of an on-location residency program. The inaugural exhibition showcased a culmination of work from the artists featured in the preceding 12 weeks of virtual exhibitions.

The following are the 12 weeks of curatorial statements:

Week 1: Distancing, With.

In the first chapter of our isolation, we are confronted by who we are isolated with. Partner, family, roommate, pet, or living alone: there is no hiding from the reality of who you live with. This exhibition explores the relationships inside your home, the social without the distance, and how these dynamics shift when in quarantine.

Week 2: Looking Out

In our new reality, we are staying inside to face the unknown. As one body, we study Spring from our collective windows and consider; where does my next paycheck come from? What if it doesn't come? What will my community look like after this is over? When will this end? Looking outside for answers, we are on alert.

Week 3: Domestic Interiors

A re-nesting occurs as our nature inclines us to adapt quickly, we find ourselves turning our new cages back into the cozy homes we once loved. Rearranging, cleaning behind furniture, and noticing parts of our homes we haven't seen before, we both evolve and revert with this exercise as we find a new way to live by adopting an old one.

Week 4: Isolation

As we approach and pass a month of social distancing, we each must address our place in the spectrum of introversion to extroversion. There may be some who seem to be thriving, however, weeks of isolation will challenge even the most introverted among us. Some may be distancing with those they live with, but every person is certainly away from people they love. We are together only in our loneliness, as we are required to both fight it and embrace it.

Week 5: Repair

A deep impulse inside us to fix problems is erupting as we ourselves must accept help for our problems. Even those who have lost so much search for others who have lost more in an attempt to offer something, negotiating with the world where their place is in it. Humbled, we receive each other’s generosity and quietly promise to give it back one day, to someone.

Week 6: Fidget

Our bodies betray us as we put on brave faces and explain how adjusted we’ve become to concerned loved ones. Our minds may have accepted this new normal, but we find our bodies dragging behind. Biting nails, grinding teeth, tapping feet, and fidgeting, stress and anxiety demand our attention; pulling on our clothes like bored toddlers only to be quieted when nourished and nurtured.

Week 7: The Takeaway

While the list of things we miss from our "normal" lives grows, there are small moments and experiences that bring us joy: more time with our children, our pets, our partners, or our gardens; less pollution in the cities and landscapes we love; rekindled connections with friends far away via video calls or letters. Yet, as the conversations turn to how to "reopen" after shut down, we wonder: What will change because of what we have learned? How have we shifted - personally, societally, globally - because of this experience? Have we learned anything at all?

Week 8: To You

What was likely a novelty only two months ago has all too quickly become the norm; birthdays, holidays, religious ceremonies, and other important (or unimportant) events are being celebrated in isolation, through devices, with homemade parades- a spectrum of unusual and creative initiatives to be "closer" while physically apart. While this shift is certainly a cause for anxiety, it has also allowed the space needed to recognize what we took for granted, before.

Week 9: Wired

In a time when we are relying on technology more than ever, it’s hard to imagine a quarantined world before the internet. We are both lucky to receive and plagued by a stream of constant information, a tool which brings us together while dividing us simultaneously. Families, friends, and separated lovers seek each other through screens. As much changes around the world, our need for connection remains.

Week 10: Holding On

Many of us were already stressed, tired, and worn before the global health crisis landed. Some of us were already worried about our finances, already feeling isolated at home with our children, already sick. We were already women existing in a system designed to leave us out. The order, need, and choice to stay home only compounded the burdens we already bore. Now we are here: inside our bodies, inside our homes, carrying the same things we held before.

Week 11: Splinter

As we near 3 months in solitude for some of us, the "how are you feeling?" and "how you holding up?" questions only serve to highlight the cracks we have formed over this time. Though many connections have been rekindled in quarantine, friendships, relationships to our jobs, and understanding of ourselves have in many ways fractured. However, just as the Japanese art of Kintsugi calls attention to the preciousness of scars, we must emerge broken- not as something to hide, but to display with pride.

Week 12: Soften

Passing 400,000 COVID-19 deaths around the world, we are confronted by a clear example of our humanity and mortality. We, people, are both the greatest threat to each other's health and our only chance of survival. There is no perfect path to move us forward, rather we are stranded on our planet together. We are both strengthened and softened- reminded of our flaws, and given time to sort through them. As we grieve and mourn, let us move forward with more kindness, understanding, and connection with all others.

Featuring Anna Ogier-Bloomer, Emily Newman, Kristy Cavaretta, Anna Wallace, Heather Palecek, Jessica Smolinski, Sarah Meyers Brent, Melissa Loney, Kristin Polich Snellings, Jillian Hagadorn, Aisha Marie, Becky Dickovitch, Megan White, Lauren Frances Evans, Beth Welch, Kelsey Hamilton Davis, Josepha Edbauer, Ellen Greene, Tamsin Wilson, Maria Ntrougia, Shahnaz Lighari, Vanessa Hall-Patch, Twiggy Boyer, Jessica Valderrama, Dana Robinson, Megan Driving Hawk, Jennifer Shelton, Carole Loeffler, Ashley Buchanan, Erika Lee Sears, Courtney Adair Johnson, Melissa Huang, Hanna Washburn, Kristin Skees, Brittney Denham-Whisonant, Mya Cluff, Lisa Alberts, Racheal Zur, Suzanne Schireson, Carlie Trosclair, Sarah Boyts Yoder, Laura Rosengren, Zoe Freney, Grace Porter, Sharon Berke, Alice Stone-Collins, Jodi Hayes, Stacy Isenbarger, Kate Martinez, Laura Wennstrom, Madeleine Lemieux, Ellen VanderMyde, Amanda Joy Brown, Maggie Sanger, Annie Brito Hodgin, Anna Rotty, Arianna Lucas, Aarthi Haig, Jihyun Lee, Sarah Arriagada, Sam Riesmeyer, Claire Bloomfield, Magdalena Dukiewicz, Rachelle Beaudoin, Kasia Ozga, Evie Woltil Richner, April Wright, Laura Klopfenstein, Lucia Riffel, Megan Wynne, and Melissa Huang.