DEMETRA KALLITSI

Reporting Live From The Fortress Of Solitude, 2020

The work is based on and created during the lockdown in Cyprus due to the Coronavirus pandemic. During this period, the artist spent her afternoons observing nature, taking photos of the changing surrounding environment, and reading or scribbling poetry, inspired by Western Haikus. The work draws upon the concept of the modern lifestyle in the developed world that heavily relies on technological advancements, which have had us believing that having everything within the reach of our hands could make us invulnerable and in control; so mobile, and worldly and free. The current situation helps us realise how fragile and flawed our existence is, and that most things in life are beyond our control and our understanding. Funnily, despite everything, spring cannot be cancelled; nature is in bloom.

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"We wake up electrified out of the coma by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the roof they've come to drop angelic bombs, the hospital illuminates itself, imaginary walls collapse, O skinny legions run outside, O starry-spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is here, O victory forget your underwear we're free."

- Allen Ginsberg

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Cited Text: Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” (also known as “Howl for Carl Solomon”), 1954–1955, in Howl and Other Poems, 1956.