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Locked in on this dreary weather day - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia
Black and white photo of adjacent neighbours apartment with their drapes closed.
View from my window looking across to my adjacent neighbours apartment.
Isolation art black and white photo of the streets of TTDI during MCO

Isolation art

It’s a Saturday mid afternoon, and I feel lonely. It is a dreary day in my matrix with persistent rain. Rain drops large enough to stir up the swimming pool below so that it looks like a stormy sea. Living in a tropical country, I know this rain will soon pass. I decide to use the camera to express my feelings, and produce this series called: Isolation Art. Malaysia currently has a movement control order (MCO) in place until the 4th February 2021. Therefore, leaving the property for only essential services in recommended.

Isolation journal

Included in this journal entry is black and white photographs taken from my apartment on a dreary day in Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia. My intention for this series of pictures is to show how locked-in feels on this particular day. The dreary weather isn’t helpful to my mood. With physical barriers very similar to prison bars surrounding me. When will I finally be free to move about as I please? February the 4th perhaps. The imagery shows the neighbours properties all shut up. Their drapes closed. Perhaps, like me they’re feeling blue today. I will be better tomorrow.

Art practice

The managed isolation has forced me to be creative. I’ve had to bring my art practice back into the photography studio. Rather than wander the streets with a camera and photograph humans being humans. Travel outside of Malaysia, has also been nonexistent in 2020. Which is disappointing, exploring and documenting new countries was an enjoyable activity. Travel on-hold for how long? A question no one knows the answer to. Having to make changes during the past year I discovered that the studio work is beneficial to my art practice. It has meant I have slowed my process down and have spent more time studying my subject matter. As my subjects like me aren’t going anywhere!

A selection of artworks created in the studio during times of being locked-in can be found here.

Artist: Tahnia Roberts ©2021
Category: Photography
Style: Fine art
Subject: Isolation Series February 2021 during MCO – Malaysia
Medium: Digital, photo, black and white
Artist country: Malaysia

Tahnia Roberts

Author Tahnia Roberts

Tahnia is a visual storyteller who uses photography to explore, investigate and document her surroundings. An avid collector of found objects which frequently become still life compositions. Black and white photography is her preferred medium. Born and raised in New Zealand, she currently resides in Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

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