Are We There Yet?
(2022) Too many glass beads to count, threaded over too many hours to countenance
‘We have been walking down a long hallway for many, many months, since the pandemic highlighted the liminal space of our society: we left the room we resided in pre-COVID, but we have not yet found a room to rest.’ (Crossing the Liminal Space of the Pandemic, Jessica Bloom)
Are We There Yet? is the embodiment of my ongoing paralysis in the face of challenges small and large. For months now—as the planet burns, society twists, my art life stagnates and our family situation demands my care—I have taken every opportunity to sit in my studio, mostly alone, joining tiny bead to tiny bead.
It’s fear, of course, and overwhelm. Denial too, I think. A seeping sense that Yup, we’re there alright, New Normal dawned a while ago, we just don’t want to call it ‘home’. It’s not what we envisioned for ourselves, our kids; this makeshift life, this paddock’s parch and chill, these porous walls. We tut and mutter, reminisce; unsettled, stateless, mostly in the dark.
‘It is difficult to make a map in splintered times’ (Deborah Levy)
SARAH READ 