08 May 2020

Insights

These Extraordinary Times with Franziska Lantz

Q & A

Image: Courtesy the Artist

These Extraordinary Times with Franziska Lantz

LP: How has your daily routine changed?

FL: Things have calmed down and gone crazy simultaneously. No work and no school means I am home with two kids more or less all day everyday. It’s wonderful and mad. I haven't sunk into a daily routine, every week seems to bring some new insights, emotions, adjustments and inspirations. For sure the silence and calm all around has an effect on me, also more sleep and daydreaming time…

Usually I draw my inspiration from everyday life through some sort of imagined apocalyptic scenario. Now that this has become reality to some extent, my artistic perspective has been pushed into deep space, with me floating in alien territories…but I am slowly regaining orientation!

LP: Many artists work in solitude ordinarily. How has isolation or social distancing affected you in these times?

FL: I can embrace solitude. I live a bit like a city hermit anyhow. In this lockdown I am in touch with more people than usual, by phone of course, which is a positive aspect. It feels good to catch up and check in with friends and family and to discuss and exchange our experiences. I find it interesting how we all react differently to this new situation. Our attitudes, of rebellion or acceptance of how things are and how we are told to behave, brings a whole new range of political questions and disasters, highlighting again a massive rift between how the rich and poor are experiencing or surviving this lockdown.

LP: If there is any silver lining, what is it?

FL: As a privileged individual living in a house with a garden, yes I have more time to think, to dream, to space out, reflect, learn, plan, recognise... fewer commitments and preoccupations bring a stronger sense of the present, now, a closer connection to nature, birds, vegetation, the weather, the sun, planets, stars.. observing the onset of this spring has been especially intense and beautifully overwhelming, bringing many fluctuating emotions between total euphoria and immense melancholia..

Spending this intense, long, twisted kind of holiday time locked up with my children is also a gift. Of course it’s brain-crushing but we have so many experiences for better or worse which we definitely never would have had in “normal” circumstances. I am sure we will never forget.

LP: Make up your own question and answer it:

FL: Love and Compassion? YES!