Dark Days, Bright Skies: Isolation and Quarantine

the sky in a circular cutout projected through a window onto a screen seen from the street at night — Dark Days, Bright Skies at Fine Art Complex 1101 in Tempe, Arizona

rear projection of digital video art created through daily documentation of the sky during the covid19 pandemic through a window of clouds in a circular cutout shape — Dark Days, Bright Skies at Tempe Center for the Arts as part of *Vital Signs*

Dark Days, Bright Skies at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, funded by the Activate Grant

Accelerated compilation of one year of consecutive daily sky recordings created for Dark Days, Bright Skies: Isolation and Quarantine, transforming 365 days of observation into a continuous reflection on the passage of time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dark Days, Bright Skies: Isolation and Quarantine is a video projection installation created from more than three years of daily recordings of the sky, filmed between March 27, 2020, and May 19, 2023. The work documents the passage of time during the COVID-19 pandemic while reflecting on isolation, uncertainty, resilience, and hope.

On March 27, 2020, the United States surpassed 100,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. In the days that followed, businesses closed, employees transitioned to working from home, and once-bustling city centers fell quiet in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

As daily life changed dramatically, the artist began filming the sky from the same window each day. While navigating the uncertainty of the pandemic as someone considered high risk for severe complications from COVID-19, the act of daily documentation became a grounding practice amid mounting anxiety, fear, and isolation. Each recording captured the same shared sky, a constant presence above a world that had been fundamentally altered.

The contrast between metaphorically dark days and the bright skies that continued to emerge overhead became central to the work. Although the U.S. Public Health Emergency officially ended on May 11, 2023, filming continued for one additional week before concluding on May 19, allowing the daily practice to come to a close only after the emergency phase of the pandemic had clearly passed.

Dark Days, Bright Skies: Isolation and Quarantine serves as a lasting record of the emotional and societal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, preserving a period of uncertainty, resilience, and hope through more than three years of daily observation.