An Unscripted Pause
Melanie Muddle
A celebration of community - our common ground and diversity wrapped in the time and space of COVID.
How do we even start to describe the past couple of years? The COVID cliches make me cringe and for that reason, I’m going to assume that you already know just how messed up things have been and that you’re familiar with all the ways your life has shifted. It’s been wild.
I remember sitting at my desk in early 2020, initially paralysed by the overwhelming weight of lockdown, homeschooling and the unknown risk posed by this virus. Like many other photographers, I could see stories unfolding all around me. I sensed that what was happening here in my hometown, in the lives of my neighbours, was important and so I decided to invite people to be part of a little lockdown project.
I live in Redhead, a small beach-side suburb just south of Newcastle in New South Wales. For many who live here, life centres around the beach.
In April 2020, in the midst of lockdown, I invited local people to share their stories. Each day I ventured out, sometimes connecting with people outside their homes and other times wandering the streets documenting the hallmarks of a pandemic. I offered to visit, to listen and to make images for and with people. I encouraged people to write down the things they wanted to remember, how they felt, how they coped. It was a beautiful opportunity to build community and I valued the connection that the project enabled. As life opened up again, I looked at the images and words gathered and could see that together we’d created a valuable visual representation of our lives during a time of great change.
Normality somewhat returned, punctuated by outbreaks and a divisiveness that I’d never seen before.
Sydney’s outbreak spread and August 2021 marked the beginning of a second period of lockdown for regional NSW. The rules were different this time and our movement outside the suburb was metered. We were really stuck at home.
I thought about continuing the 2020 project, but somehow, this time around, I couldn’t find the energy needed to invite and gather. Instead, with the help of my friend Hannah and designer Josie Young, we created a piece of community art, a large paste-up that stitched together the images made and words shared during the 2020 lockdown.
And then,
We find ourselves living our lives tied to our homes in this beautiful place…again.
Can you remember our first unscripted pause? Remember when new words, new rules and strange circumstances shifted everything?
Despite all of it,
the new rhythms,
the complexities,
the confusion,
the isolation,
the wild ups and down,
we continue to find ourselves trying to make sense of it all.
And then
this visual narrative of community was created,
a gentle reminder to appreciate our common ground and diversity despite it being wrapped in the time and space of COVID.
Thank you to Kim Matthews and the board of the local Redhead Bowling Club for supporting the project and allowing us to paste up the piece on the Club’s building.