SILVIA KARAMFILOVA

“LOCKDOWN”, albeit different, is part of the “Windows, Doors and Bridges” cycle of paintings. It came as a spontaneous reaction to the ongoing events we are all experiencing over the past one year.

The painting shows a caged city hanging over dried up, cracked and desolate land. Dark clouds slowly descent over it and encompass it. A raging storm has begun to slowly unfold symbolizing the change which is taking place. To the left there is the globally recognized biohazard symbol, coined by Dow Chemical in the 1960s, conveying “danger” in every language. The normal flow of our life has been strongly disrupted. We are urged to practice universal precautions against exposure to an unknown infectious agent posing risk to our wellbeing and lives.

The message is clear – life has been caged, constrained and crippled. It reflects well how most of us feel – threatened, restricted, afraid for our lives, unable to trust those around us, retreating into our own shells, not being able to make clear plans about the future, angry and humiliated, let alone being able to have dreams. The light streaming through the windows of the buildings in the city is overshadowed by the prison bars encompassing it. They hold us in lockdown physically also affecting our spirit.

However, our souls are still free unless we have decided to cage them ourselves through our thinking. The souls are the white birds flying through the bars and wondering out into the horizon. Somewhere there in the far distance, we also see blue seas where there are no dark clouds. Boats roam freely. Panta Rhei… Everything flows, everything in life passes and times are subject to change. Before this change occurs, however, a road is to be walked by each and everyone of us. It can take many forms and expressions.

Thus, before the city lies a dusty and cracked road on which a human stands gazing in the direction of the caged city. It could be anyone of us. He knows that he has to pass through the city to continue down the road which leads to the sea and nature where he would meet and be reunited with his freedom. It is a choice each one of us has to make….to either remain in the caged city or continue walking on the road to freedom.