Tedium

The cycle of confinement

Tedium is a work comprised of 3 prints documenting the repetitive routine of traveling up and down my building's lift during Melbourne's 2021 lockdown's. Taken on my Android phone and Ricoh GR3 these pictures document a twilight zone experience of repetition while experiencing acute cabin fever.

Two prints are mounted at the entrance to the elevator in the library and a larger print is displayed in the main gallery.

The first confirmed case of covid 19 in Australia was identified on 25 January 2020, in Victoria, when a man who had returned from Wuhan in China tested positive for the virus.

A massive second wave of infections in July 2020 was largely localised to Melbourne and was much more widespread and deadlier than the first. At its peak, the state had over 7,000 active cases. A strict lockdown lasted almost four months and was endured without any vaccine being available. Many in this city believed that the sacrifices made by the people of Melbourne then may have saved the county from massive rates of infection and deaths nationally. This was not appreciated by the deputy leader of the federal government who said infamously at the time: "...in country areas we couldn’t really give a shit.” ..."we [Rural Australians] look at Melbourne, and go, you can almost smell the burning flesh from here". Never forget. The sense of isolation and abandonment was profound. The 2nd wave ended with zero new cases being recorded on 26 October 2020.

For family reasons I spent most of 2020 in Queensland. All told I stayed on the sunshine coast for just over 10 months because I could not risk being locked out of Queensland returning from Melbourne. Missing all my friends and listening to their experiences from afar was distressing. There were some precautions taken against the pandemic in Queensland , but you wouldn't have know it. When I told Queenslander's that I was from Melbourne, and what my situation was, their universal response was "I bet you're glad you are up here eh!" This was particularly galling. I felt this attitude was reflective of the the rest of the country's lack of empathy or outright indifference to Melbourne's situation.

When I finally did return to Melbourne I heard first hand what my friends had endured while i was away. When I settled back down here I then began my own experience of lockdown. Part of this meant countless trips in the up and down the lift of my building. It became a tiny symbol of incarceration and escape, a repeating pattern of catch and release . I usually traveled alone but sometimes warily with others. It came to represent ongoing tedium in my life then.