"We were at once recipients of and contributors to the joy of witnessing the sudden appearance of creatures none of us had foreseen, but which we ourselves had nonetheless created." Simone Kahn, poet

 

We have found ourselves in a new surreal world, one where time and space don't function as they did previously. It is a world we have created through our ignorance, disconnection with nature, and obsession with manipulating our surroundings. As a result, we experience one disaster after the other, from threats that move through our environment, leaving obvious traces of devastation to a virus that remains precariously invisible. Bodies of Matter is a collaborative exhibition between Elaine Camlin and Julie Mia Holmes, exploring the experience of living through a pandemic, isolation, and Covid-19. 

 

This project explores the notion that everything is connected. Yet, the nature of Covid-19 requires us to stay physically disconnected and isolated in order to contain it. The creative conversation stemmed from the surrealist concept of Exquisite Corpses. We are all like exquisite corpses, discombobulated and disconnected bodies - the very same experience of being in isolation. 

 

We watch numbers and graphs fluctuate throughout the day; there is an element of chance and luck, the roll of a dice, as some are mortally infected. In contrast, others who are asymptomatic spread the virus undetected through our community. Our life is surreal, a game of chance. The works combine media imagery with popular culture, historic images, drawings and prints to create new bodies of matter.