The World is experiencing a moment of stand-still during the events of Covid-19 pandemic. Surely it is affecting each one of us in many different ways. To some this means fear and uncertainty about the future, economic difficulties, to others – inspiration and time to create. This period brings ideas into surface, raises questions and debates about our healthcare and economic systems, ecological, political and social issues.
This is a series of posts featuring creative expressions made during Covid-19 pandemic, or previous works that are particularly relevant during these times of change.
Barbara vandendriessche is a photographer, sculptor and visual poet from Belgium. She worked as a director and set designer in a theatre for 20 years which greatly influenced her visual practice, focusing on physicality, emotion and expression.
The set of photographs “Floating” created during the pandemic period are described by the artist as “floating in uncertainty, without purpose, but not in a heavy way.”
“With my pictures and sculptures I seek for the beauty in the tragical, in pain.
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My photography is theatrical. But ‘theatricality’ is an elastic concept and also has many negative connotations: bombastic, exaggerated, false or artificial. This is how I define it myself: theatralization is the abstracting and enlargement of reality to evoke emotion in the viewer, not through reason, but directly appealing to an approach that can be traced to our ritual instincts. Theatricality as a pre-aesthetic instinct.
That is what I try to represent with my photography: how to portray the emotional body tragically? How to create a tragic image that expresses emotion and triggers emotion? Search for images with an intensity, no images with intentions. Images you look at because they tell you something, even if you do not immediately know what. Images that evoke a story, without being narrative themselves. Often with the female body as an expression of beauty.”
–Barbara vandendriessche
One thought on “COVID-19 CREATIVE OUTLET: “Floating” by Barbara vandendriessche”
Wow! I wanted to share, I see darkness but why I do. I was dx with Covid19 on June 16, 2020 and it was severe. I still have post Covid19 complications, some permanent like vascular damage. The incredible miracle is I used Google lens to search something from my body caused by Covid19 and it led me here – so wow! You literally captured it in a picture. It’s my suffering – completely amazed as I love art.