Annie Kierans | Togetherness

Mar 3

2021-04 Focus poster - Kierans black highres.jpg

Annie Kierans
Togetherness

Focus Gallery, April 2 - May 1, 2021

I began Togetherness at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to reckon with this unusual and chaotic moment.

Amidst social distancing, quarantines, self-isolation, and travel restrictions, we became became indeterminately out of reach from one another. Our spheres of existence shrank overnight. Basic gestures of human connection with those outside our bubbles – shaking hands, hugging, sharing a meal – became taboo. Like so many, I yearned for the tangible presence of others, beyond bite-sized vignettes on social media or pixelated glimpses in video chats. With no end to the pandemic in sight, I began to imagine the possibility of sharing space outside the digital realm.

Following the need to be near, I requested entry into the homes of loved ones by way of a single still image, from the prescribed distance of six feet away. I poured over every object in each frame. I rendered their gestures and expressions with care. I saw tangles of cords, candy wrappers, thirsty plants, tea cups, and toes. I saw the hazy view out their windows. I saw the weight of their cushions. I saw the glare of their devices. I saw them: unabashed, vulnerable, uncertain, and distracted.

In confinement, the minutia of our daily rituals and the objects we surround ourselves with gain new significance. If our inner geography is reflected in our domestic configurations, it is possible to experience our interiors not as cages but as departure points – to see the familiar as strange, vibrant, and alive. Through close attention, we can find ways to inhabit each others' spaces and transform our own.

Togetherness is an exercise in mutual tenderness and teleportation.

IN THE NEWS
Whitehorse Star

ANNIE KIERANS
Annie Kierans is a visual artist originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia now based in Dawson City, Yukon. She practices close looking, intuitive gestures, distortions of shape, and colour play through the mediums of paint, video, analog film and lo-fi animations. Her work is process-based and loosely centered around warp of time, space, and narrative.

Website
www.anniekierans.com