LUCIA HERRERO

How do the words appear in my work:

Bubbles of Chat messaging accompany the peripheral visual materials mentioned above. These messages show pieces of conversations* related to the pandemic situation. Fears, confessions, logistics. These bubbles contain concise messages that are relevant and informative. They appear in the visual shape typical of the technology we use to communicate long distance.

*models texting me or other people – significant conversations donated by the models-.

They are fragmentary digital glimpses through Whatsapp and text conversations; emails; tweets and social media posts into the worries, emotions, mundane logistics, and micro-tragedies of the people I photograph.

I am now producing chapter one: Tracking the ongoing spread of the virus through momentary glimpses, both visual and written, of the compelling space where one’s “inside world” meets the socio-political and economic realities of the “outside world”. 

Statement

Early in 2020, the global COVID19 pandemic altered the regular patterns of human activity, creating a slowness and hyper-locality that has challenged the basic underpinnings of the pace and scale of globalization.  This threatening global transformation is characterized, for many people, by an eerie calmness that references T.S. Eliot’s “not with a bang but a whimper” of the end of the world. For many, this shift in speed of life has been accompanied by a marked contrast between the “interior world” of our own homes, and the “outside world”, now seen only through screens and windows. There is a stark distinction between inside and outside, safe and hostile, the familiar and the unknown. 

Yet, despite our physical isolation - we are not alone. For people all around the world, free digital technologies profoundly transform the way we experience our physical solitude, and via these new platforms, we travel where our body is not allowed to go. Video calls, text messaging, group chats, email and other digital tools have become how we talk with others and understand our suddenly transformed world. 

The project is formed by a collection of “main images” and their captions explaining who and where these persons are and the effect  the pandemic is having on them.

I also have compiled other materials: the preparatory photos and videos I received from the subjects of their houses, families, activities and the views from their windows; the drawings and sketches I sent to them; our correspondence and interviews. 

I also work on a map of the tracking of contacts that echoes, in format and style, the ones used to track the virus’ spread around the world, is also attached.