“We are like islands in the sea; separate on the surface but connected in the deep", or: "Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground.” 

-William James 

 

 

 

Isolation is a self-portrayed project and - I would dare to say – therapeutic. It originates from the necessity of understanding and transcending the global crisis we’re going through which  has so deeply affected our lives, thus, forcing us to reflect on our path through life and the world so far. Also, it makes us to adapt to a new paradigm, a new environment, to this new reality this trance has caused. 

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I understand crisis as a necessary change. Every great transformation generates turbulent times where the old values resist fading away, while new paradigms struggle to gain some footing and general approval. In these transitional periods, the standards of both periods compete and intermingle with their positive and negative manifestations. And I feel like I’m in the middle of this maelstrom, in an exercise of intimate despair to let go and accept the facts, and as part of the human species, to adapt to a new way of living.  

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There have always been moments and schisms that have forced humanity to evolve. The universality of the cyclical process is inherent to life and it is most prominent in the progression of the seasons of the year, the phases of the Moon, the life cycle of a plant or in any other experience that we can observe. This concept has been of crucial importance, and it is constantly reflected in my work as nature is my greatest inspiration. But now I am faced with something much bigger, some “new 20s”, a new era, something much bigger that I seek to represent with my photographic language. 

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This confinement has forced me to work from home. I have felt -as throughout my life- the need to take photos. I have coursed to a place in search for my blue, my universe, my aesthetics, my forest, and my system in my own limited home. “Home” understood as a body, as my vessel, and within me. It has forced me to stand in front of the mirror and live, gear down and stop making up excuses. Living and learning to enjoy the brutal uncertainty. I have understood that beyond the limits of our body, there is a connection between us and what surrounds us. We are all bound as a unit, in which each individual learning represents an evolutionary advantage for our species. 

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After last century’s transformations, we are still witnessing and being part of rapid changes and innovations that only a few decades ago would have been unconceivable. But the consciousness of human beings does not seem to keep up the pace with technological and scientific advances, and this represents a dangerous rift between these developments and having to figure out their ethics and how to use them in a responsible way. The world needs to evolve not only technically but rather in terms of consciousness. Isolation embodies this process during quarantine, as the greatest reflection of "who am I" as part of this world. 

 

  

Irene Cruz 

 

“Each animal, plant or mineral species possesses a collective memory to which all members of the species contribute and which they shape”.

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Rupert Sheldrake.