australian artist lisa sorgini captures mothers and children in quarantine

many photographers and videographers have captured the lockdowns around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. from ai weiwei’s coronation documentary to tom hegen’s aerial look at grounded airplanes, creatives are taking these unfolding events and finding personal and artistic responses to them. for australian artist lisa sorgini, the focus was mothers and their children experiencing isolation in their homes. the result? an honest and timeless series called behind glass.

images by lisa sorgini

in behind glass, lisa sorgini has captured 25 mothers and their children living in isolation during the coronavirus period of enforced social distancing. ‘I have built a practice investigating relationships between mother and child and in this series I explore my long-held fascination with photographing through windows to frame a subject – a process I have never felt is more poignant than now,’ comments sorgini.

taken in new south wales, the photographs showcase the lightness and darkness of parenting during these difficult times. behind the glass, the subjects appear like living and breathing masterpieces — divine comedies of domesticity. ‘through this work I hope to make the invisible role of parenting in isolation visible: the deepest tenderness, tedium, quietude, love, frustration, fear and despair,’ concludes lisa sorgini.

‘though many entrants grappled with making photographs in the time of coronavirus-induced quarantine, sorgini’s poignant series was the most successful. her portraits of mothers and children together as viewed through windows into their homes brilliantly capture the dissonance of an era defined by both the alienating isolation of social distance and the inescapable intensity of familial intimacy. rendered in muted tones with soft light, these moments of fleshy physical closeness are marked by a combination of tenderness, claustrophobia, and ennui,’ comments susan thompson, associate curator, solomon r. guggenheim museum.

project info

name: behind glass

artist: lisa sorgini