Artist Statement

Since before mandatory curfews and stay at home orders were a part of our lives, I have always enjoyed going on long walks throughout my neighborhood. I would use these walks not just as a form of exercise, but also as a time of reflection. In the time of COVID-19 and quarantines, my daily walks became a sort of escape to help fill many of the voids which come with living in isolation. While on these walks I noticed changes in my surrounding community, both positive and negative, which are directly related to the impact coronavirus has had on society. In these images I use art, and more specifically Instax instant photographs, to document these changes. 

As stay at home orders and mandatory curfews were lifted and we were able to venture into the new normal of everyday life, I continued to photograph and document the process of reintroducing once routine activities to my life.  Things once taken for granted like attending public events, reconnecting with friends, and being in a crowd became calculated risks.  Over the past two years, what started as a way to pass time and keep some sanity in my life during lockdown, eventually developed into a timeline of images, a sort of conscious stream of thought, which depicts my experiences throughout this challenging time.     

While the scope of this series continued to expand and record my own journey through quarantine and post-quarantine readjustment, I wanted to also incorporate the experiences of my fellow community members.  This culminated in a series of glass portraits accompanied by a single, repeated Instax image.  These images were provided directly by each of the subjects and are representative of their own experience with Covid and quarantine.  In this way, each finished piece can be seen as a sort of conversation not only between the subject and myself, but also a conversation that viewers can relate to as well.     

–Micah Mermilliod

Artist Biography

Micah Mermilliod creates work that often incorporates elements of collage, both in the mediums used and the ideas at play.  He is most interested in adaptive changes that humans make, especially in an environment that is rapidly changing due to catalysts such as technology, socioeconomic status, and environmental change.  Much of his work from the past few years has explored his experience with quarantine and the new normal that has followed. Micah received his MFA from the University of South Alabama in 2022 in Creative Technologies and Practice, and he currently resides in Mobile, AL, where he works as a curator for the Alabama Contemporary Art Center.