No Longer, Not Yet
Current times of uncertainty transforms us into liminal subjects whose sense of ‘normality’ as we know it has been suspended. The uncertainty about what may no longer be and what may come to be places us in a state between the past and the future – yet, we do not belong to the past as we knew it, nor to the future as we imagined it. Being in such a state affects not only our sense of self, but also our sense of self in relation to others. Facing ontological insecurity shifts how our identities of relationality and belonging are constituted, performed and articulated. Rather than seeking one another for refuge, we increasingly feel anxious, alienated, apathetic, and alone. This experience of living in liminal times is the inspiration for the series No Longer, Not Yet (2023, ongoing).
In the series, we follow a woman. She turns away from us, leaving her character unexplained. We are thus asked to make meaning from the situations with which we encounter her; to make dynamic connections between empty spaces and the possible character of the woman depicted. Characterised by transitionality, the empty spaces in themselves invite interpretation. Enveloped in darkness, they seem eerily silent. The repetitive and pervasive tension between stasis and transition creates a sense of unreal reality: a metaphoric picture of the mental state in which we, as liminal subjects, currently find ourselves.
