Exploring Places and Spaces

In the online course, Modern Art & Ideas, from the Museum of Modern Art, Week 2 asks us to consider place and space in the creation and interpretation of art; specifically, to:

Think about a place you’ve visited in the past few weeks that had a strong effect on you. Consider the characteristics of the place that made it distinct, including the mood, environment, people who were around or with you, and your reason for being there. Create or find an image that expresses your experience of that place

Oddly, I struggled to think of places that resonated with me on an emotional level that I then wanted to explore and express creatively. (Work and my grandmother's assisted living facility were the top 2 that came to mind, but I had had enough of the really deep/negative spaces for this week.) Considering the request more generally, I realize that place and space have been concepts we have had to consider all the time, as our world necessarily constricts to allow us to flatten the curve in order to help others heal. What I've noticed in these last 6 months, then, is how we collectively try to find novel ways to reach out and "be" with others. The requirement to occupy less space and decrease our contacts has stimulated the craving for more contact and to be seen and heard.

When I went to a yard sale this morning, there were a number of aged reflective surfaces. I liked the emotions evoked from being "confined" by a pane of glass, with its defined edges that keep a reflection of us inside. Stepping in front of this embossed mirror leaning against an old church pew, I noticed that the mirror only captured my legs and feet, but that the morning sun gave rise to shadows - my shadow that, despite the constraints of the mirror and surrounding objects, resembled a strange yet somehow more complete human form. 

I like to think of the old mirror representing our old, pre-pandemic way of occupying space, and how the shadow breaks out of the box to occupy this new normal - something that still is shapeless and defiantly stands, begging to be defined.