The Pandemic Lens^®

As an artist, I seek to blend the contents of my mental and emotional world with selective components of external reality, often derived from photography and digital painting. Bits and pieces of the external world are frequently the basis of my compositions, which are intuitively distorted into different levels of abstraction. There is always a tension between the extent to which the process of abstraction explores a deeply personal subject, and the extent to which it also explores or is directly affected by the external objects that are part of my compositions. In this sense, my art is a constant interplay between subjective and objective reality.

Covid has provided me with an interesting blend of artistic subjects to focus on, ranging from my own concerns and experiences about the virus to those that affect us as a society, as well as those that affect other people that are close to me or who are a source of inspiration.

 

 

 

While I am typically entangled within my own subjective reality as an artist, it is hard not to be highly sensitive to the weight of the virus as it affects those around me. The effect of the virus on others is a powerful and unique force that I am using in my art to settle questions within myself, questions that would not easily be addressed without the emotional and existential force of a pandemic.

 

 

 

They say a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. For me, Covid is an opportunity for artistic inquiry and personal introspection. The interplay and tension between internal and external reality that defines a large part of my artistic process is greatly heightened during this global crisis, particularly as it pertains to incorporating the emotional and mental repertoire of others into my own. Covid has inspired the notion that personal identity and subjectivity involves not only my own sense of consciousness, but the consciousness and humanity of others as well.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2020 Benjamin Arizmendi