Shiraz, Iran / 6.19.20 / 9:35:42 AM Painting

As the pandemic slowly began upending the daily activities and freedoms we’ve all grown used to, a few freelance jobs I had been involved with were put on hold and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands and no clear direction. I work out of my home studio, so I was lucky enough to avoid the relocation process many artists have had to go through. With my choices limited and the local and international art worlds essentially grinding to a halt, I felt free to lose myself in work. After going through my sketchbook for ideas, I remembered a site I had stumbled on in early 2019 that streamed thousands of surveillance cameras from around the world. When I revisited the site, I found myself absorbed in this seemingly endless collection of footage. This became my way of staying connected to humanity and finding fresh visual inspiration in foreign environments despite being otherwise restricted. I had been hearing about how other countries were dealing with COVID-19 in the news, but here I was able to experience an unadulterated view of streets, businesses and landscapes - mostly devoid of human activity. Now, as people now start to slowly move back to their daily routines, the spaces I've documented earlier this year are becoming inhabited once again and transforming into something new.   I’ve been spending the last few months collecting screenshots of footage, narrowing down images that strike me and using them as inspiration for new work. Each piece is titled with the exact place, date and time it was taken.