UMLÄUT 2020 - THE PANDEMIC ISSUE
SILVER-LINING
Amelia Reed
In order to properly encapsulate the connection that I personally felt between “silver lining” and the pandemic, I decided to make a collage of sorts which I hoped could display a bit of the chaos and confusion that we are universally experiencing. By showing the mishmash of faces in the background of the piece, which I used to signify a “worldwide” look, as well as the headless ballerina figure in the foreground, which was really intended for aesthetic purposes, I created a vaguely stagnant collage. The lack of motion was intended to signify us, the world, lying in wait for whatever comes next. And the strands of human hair I attached in place of the ballerina body’s head… I just had lying around.
The “silver lining” aspect of the collage is shown in the, well, silver lines running through the image. With them, I intended to show how we as a society tend to gravitate towards looking for a “silver lining,” something positive to focus on to avoid crumbling away into depression. The silver strings on my piece are holding the faces, the chaotic aspect of everything, back; not how prison bars would hold you, but how a belay attached to a harness in order to help you climb a particularly steep peak would. I also intended to give the lines a guitar string look, because my own personal silver lining in all of this has been music. With the piece, I wanted to show that one needn’t feel guilty for focusing on the good, so long as they don’t forget that that isn’t an option for everyone.