Opera. Isola.

janKB

The more hectic our everyday lives and the more constant our communication, the stranger we find it when we take refuge within, in voluntary isolation. Before corona, anyone who withdrew for a time was expected to soon break out again; then, all of a sudden, retreat became the primary civic duty.

Pictures know nothing about the virus – but they show things. The photos in janKB’s series – most of which were shot on Nordic islands – are about building walls and keeping out one’s social surroundings. Walls, hedges, curtains, and houses that, often, have been stripped of their windows, are recurring motifs, set in contrast to the sea and coastal horizons. Printed in very different formats and materials, and digitally processed to varying degrees, the image series affect the viewer emotionally, like a musical composition. Subliminally, the experience here turns the focus on inner withdrawal. Aren’t we constantly running into walls, dreaming of wide-open spaces, yet still just hedging ourselves in?

When viewing ‘Opera. Isola’, we increasingly discover the islander characteristics within ourselves. Social distancing is everywhere.