Isolation Games

At the dawn of 2020, universal freedoms were renegotiated as the world receded into quarantine. Lifestyles were fraught with apprehension surrounding social implications of an unapologetic threat among our collective future. We promptly discovered detachment drastically shifts routine and tests psychology. Humanity's fragile inter-connectedness amid a surreal stillness became a germane allegory of solidarity and perseverance in an uncertain world.

With natural light befitting mood, each tabletop represents distraction and amusement, a need seemingly amplified in a skewed world. As pastimes rooted in tradition, like mythology and literature, games are cultural agents for human experience—the zeitgeist of societies. While passing the time at home during isolation, on an old coffee table where memories abound, games cultivated safety, intimacy, and warmth among limited human presence.

As serendipitous surrogates to customary social interactions, these moments hearkened back to a seemingly lost tradition, to nostalgic times from which I've reassessed valued relationships and my habitual approach to daily life. I grew intrigued by items, surface textures, and backgrounds encompassing an adjusted at-home mindset, a meditative glimpse of indirect portraiture. Reflecting upon and freshly embracing what essentially matters in this paused, ambiguous arc of time, has suddenly come into sharp[er] focus.