Landscapes in Isolation

Clare Johnson had a show in a café in Seattle that recently opened, but due to the COVID-19 crisis, it was shut down early and barely seen by the general public. This piece was the last one she sold before the pandemic, and displays how people can be both near and far simultaneously, as houses are physically close together but their inhabitants are unable to connect. The clouds cover much of the space, as many people’s future feels more unsure and difficult to decipher during this period of quarantine.

Maysey Craddock’s art displays the process of nature retaking a space. This image depicts an abandoned church that had fallen in that she discovered in a rural, pastoral area of Estonia. It holds a mixture of old and new, with both Roman stone and modern materials in the construction. It is a mystery why this area was abandoned; without human custodianship it has radically transformed as it has fallen into ruin.

Humans and the environment we inhabit live together in an ever-tense situation where there is a struggle for control. Maakestad’s interest in urban landscapes, shown in a unique manner, challenge us to consider how we perceive these spaces. Landscape is constantly evolving and changing, so the abstract nature of her work reflects this uncertainty of what one is viewing.

Throughout Clare Johnson’s work, houses serve as stand-ins for people. In this piece, the large amount of empty physical space mirrors the emotional emptiness individual people experience in isolation. While some houses/people may remain upright and strong while being alone, others will cripple under the weight of solitude and lack of custodianship from outsiders. This image also emphasizes the struggle to balance between somethingness and nothingness, or chaos and security.

Maakestad’s work makes the typical evocative and artistic, transforming a piece of land seen every day into a work of beauty. The contrast between light and dark evokes images of cars driving on highways at night, without explicitly showing them. It makes us wonder: how do we perceive places like highways when humans are removed entirely?

In this piece, there is an emphasis on how people can be isolated and connected at the same time, both separate and together. Other people are somewhere nearby, but one cannot see or touch them, prompting a feeling of detachment. The rain evokes a sense of disruption, uncertainty, and a lack of clear vision

As this small house collapses, it falls like a spiral into the earth. This spinning effect mirrors the mental state isolation can induce, a chaotic one full of disarray and uncertainty. The collapse has altered the environment to such an extreme that it is impossible for one to envision what it looked like before, and it will never go back to being exactly the same. This mirrors the anxiety that people have for the post-quarantine world, and how they wonder if everyday life will ever return to how it once was.

Even though Maakestad’s pieces do not include any human figures, she is not aiming at creating “post-apocalyptic” images. The simultaneous emptiness and fullness of a piece of land without people present can be seen here. Do people need to inhabit a space in order for it to be considered occupied and fulfilling what it can?