Natalia Struchkova.
The Confined

Portrait series created during the lockdown. Clutching various electronic devices, the characters appear in the light of screens. I discovered some of the character over Skype and Zoom, some of them were introduced to me via messages, some of them I found on social media. Friends and strangers are confined to the perimeters of their portraits and the digital spaces of everyday life.

During the lockdown, each of us finally had an opportunity to truly “get to know ourselves.” What new horizons revealed themselves to us in this new reality? An opportunity to face our fears, neuroses, and expectations. An opportunity to rekindle familial relations in the absence of external interferences, parties, entertainment, and small talk. We have to use this new version of reality productively and create better versions of ourselves. This is no easy task. The familiar externalized social relationships went almost completely digital. We are addicted to our glimmering monitors, hoping to receive support from our friends and family members, confined, just as we are, in their four walls. This is what my series is about. We confined ourselves by giving in to the “Big Brother of Technocracy”. All-powerful technologies previously changed just the surrounding world. Nowadays these very technologies aim to transform the psychology and biology of humanity. We are fully buried in our technologies. In time, these technologies will burrow ever deeper inside ourselves. Turn of your iPhones, get out the checkers and rakes. Call on your parents and play with your kids! It’s time to leave the online world behind and go onlife!