Alone Together: Six Feet of Separation

By Anna Kavehmehr

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Objective

With the start of Quarantine in 2020, I started creating an illustration every few days to capture a message, a feeling or the everyday elements that I took for granted before the pandemic. The following illustrations are some of the examples for this exercise.

Background

I used a consistent background which conveys a surreal version of the outdoors. Using the colour pink I wanted to depict how unreal the outdoors looked in my view. I also tried to showcase the repetition in our daily lives since the pandemic started. I wanted to ensure that the subject matter/ the feeling remained the focal point in each frame. As the months passed in quarantine, the focus on the outdoors faded in my illustrations and the concepts of connection and the effects of the events became my priority while creating an image.

About the exhibition

With the start of lockdown in 2020, I started creating an image every couple of days to document what I and people around me were feeling. The uncertainty of the time, the fear, adapting to change, the constant news, social injustice, political news, etc. At the time, I didn’t intend to make this a series. I was merely trying to process everything and channel what I was feeling through art.

I focused on specific feelings, everyday routines or events that affected me personally; from the little things that I had taken for granted such as fresh air or the cup of coffee on my way to work, to more serious issues as the virus’s effect on the human body, the toll of the pandemic on the healthcare workers, the melancholic sadness of everyday activities, the effects of the news on adults and children’s mental health to social and political injustices and issues.

As the months went by, my focus started to shift from external events or the changes to our everyday lives to focusing on the effects of the pandemic on our professional and personal relationships and the importance of human connection. I started exploring the effect of technology in bringing us closer together while simultaneously highlighting the distance we were collectively feeling.

A year and a half into the pandemic, in an effort to complete the series, It was important to me to illustrate my current mental state and create one final image depicting the change as a result of the pandemic and my hopes for the future.

About the artist

Anna (Kaveh)Mehr was born in Tehran, Iran. She moved to Toronto in 2013 to pursue a career in art. She holds a master’s degree in digital media and a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. Her art is largely based on poems, music, and literature. Telling stories through art has been her lifelong passion. She loves to depict complex human emotions and is constantly inspired by people’s conflicts and relationships with one another and with nature.

Social

Credits

Anna Artist Talk

September 21, 2021, at 6pm

Anna Instagram Live

September 23, 2021, at 12pm

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