At The Still Point of The Turning World
I have a health condition which means I’m at high risk if I contract Covid-19 so my wife, two children and myself had been in continuous lockdown from February 2020 until May 2021. It had been oddly idyllic spending lots of time with my family. I felt fortunate.
My children are 18 months apart in age and were close, but I began to notice early during those strange months, how much their bond grew and strengthened. They were each other’s playmate, teammate, confidant, partner in crime, singing accompanist… the list grew daily.
When the pandemic began I began making more pictures around my home. I wanted the tactile feedback of pushing the shutter, I needed to create and work on something normal in a time of growing abnormality.
The title of the work is from a poem by T.S. Eliot and it refers to this domestic peace and unease as the world tumbled in the face of a catastrophe.
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
