The Essentiality of Art in Crisis: a Gallery of Pandemic Isolation
Abigael Bridgemohan
During this pandemic, a family illness brought me to Portland to take care of my aunt. In the end stages of her nearly two-year long battle with ovarian cancer, my aunt Anjali maintained her spirits despite being isolated from most of her family. Isolation in life is challenging, and isolation in death can be very damaging to one’s sense of hope. As an EMT and caretaker, I have seen the damaging mental and physical health effects of ailing in isolation the firsthand. While a daunting task, I chose to fly to Portland alone during a global pandemic because I refused to let my aunt become another isolation casualty.
This project seeks to provide an account of experiences of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in an artistic form. Art can be extremely cathartic, especially for those who do not often spend time creating, sharing, or thinking about art. Artistic production has been used as a consolidated therapeutic method, a way to make meaning in moments of crisis For me, painting is a way to relax and make sense of my surroundings. Having personally struggled with my mental health, painting has become a way to process and express my wishes and thoughts, fears and desires. How can we make sense of our surroundings when we are not changing them for months on end? What does isolation art look like?
The drawing of Anjali, the author’s aunt.
When embarking on this project, I wasn’t quite sure what direction it would take me. The people participating in this project are my friends and family, ranging in age and place of residence across the United States. While some of these art pieces were done in response to my prompt “How has COVID affected your life?”, others were completed without prompting and simply submitted. With some participants, I conducted interviews to discuss their contribution and learn more about their own perception of their pandemic experience. Resounding themes throughout these interviews were the issues of mental health and comprehending unexpected changes.
In this gallery, we see the fundamental yearning for companionship. As you go through the submissions, you will notice that most of those who decided to artistically represent themselves, did so of themselves alone. Others who shared their own visual point of view, shared one of themselves, alone, seemingly wishing to be somewhere else. While this pandemic has brought many older children home, it has, at the same time, taken those children away from their family of friends at college or far from other loved ones. The same can be said for working adults and their colleagues. In much of the artwork here, the pandemic emerges both as an isolating experience and yet one that is part of a collective global crisis.
The gallery ultimately shows that in this pandemic, people are taking it upon themselves to create art to understand their own experience. As described by artist and academic Lewis Netter, “People are dying, critical resources are stretched, the very essence of our freedom is shrinking—and yet we are moved inward, to the vast inner space of our thoughts and imagination, a place we have perhaps neglected.”
While there is anxiety surrounding the future of the arts sector, given the billions of dollars of revenue lost to date as a result of quarantine, something perhaps unexpected has also become to feel essential: the arts. Arts and crafts retailers have begun to become considered ‘essential businesses’ and there has been a significant increase in art store sales and the demand for art supplies nationally since March.
Art propels us forward when it feels as though life is standing still. Art provides a record of our experiences as we perceive them, and allows us to share those perceptions with others. In this gallery, I hope to showcase the perceived experiences of friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic, with special attention to themes of mental health, isolation, and hope.
You can access the gallery here.
Abigael Bridgemohan is a senior at Northwestern University pursing a degree in Genetics, Portuguese, and Anthropology. Her interest in art stems from her grandmother, Marilyn, who worked as both a child psychologist and an artist, using art to help her patients express themselves. During the pandemic, Abigael has been working as an EMT, and art has become an important coping mechanism for redirecting stress. From this project, she hopes you will gain greater insight into the socio-emotional challenges presented by extended isolation of a habitually social species.
