Due to the pandemic travel restrictions are imposed on all of us. Most of Aram Tanis work has been created outside of his home country, so this measure has a clear impact on his artist practice. Tanis was born in South Korea and travels on a regular basis to his birth country, so these restrictions also have an emotional impact on him. Tanis expresses his state of mind in this new work Dreaming of A Pool in The Rain.

For this work the artist started to focus on the natural elements in the city where he lives. Nature is a great way to find escape from an everyday busy city life, but this pandemic shows that nature can also ‘turn’ against us as Covid-19 has been passed on from an animal onto a human. At the same time this pandemic happened because of the carelessness and disrespect people have for animals. This is what triggered Tanis idea to only photograph animals and plants. Dreaming of A Pool in The Rain shows us a combination of black and white images of “common” and endangered species.

When looking at Dreaming of A Pool in The Rain, one can not escape a feeling of solitude and isolation. Nature can be a way to escape from these emotions, but at the same time can also enlarge them. In these strange times Tanis has captured these ambivalent feelings in this work.

All images ©Aram Tanis