Scenes from Quarantine
Early in March, the day we moved into our new live-work studio, it was announced that COVID19 finally had its foothold in Michigan. Within the week, our safety net of contracts and anticipated work for the year was indefinitely put on hold; our many plans, including a wedding, were as well.
Radio silence like this was unknown to us: there was always work to do and clients to answer. Nevermind the obvious time-filler of social obligations, errand running, and day-to-day business that once eclipsed every schedule. This was the first time in both our adult life and professional careers that there was nothing to do but our own work.
Left to our own devices we spent weeks planning, researching, and shooting multiple sets every few days. We chose nostalgic scenes that we wanted to inhabit. Our downtime of streaming Rear Window, Twilight Zone and Death Becomes Her, flipping through cookbooks from the early 70s, and digging out childhood toys all became a search for scenes we’d sought to create.
For the first time, these images were solely for us. They were our port in the storm that has been 2020. We created this work to bring ourselves joy--to sneak in little handwritten jokes or challenge each other with small era-specific details no one would care to notice but us.
