In the land of lights, it is starting to get a little dark

Eric Meyer | November 12, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Eric Meyer Convergence Whats Next for Earth

On March 17, 2020, France confined itself to prevent the coronavirus spread within its population. We were told to stay at home and avoid any unnecessary outings. Schools, businesses, theaters, museums, non-essential shops, most public and social places closed their doors.

We could no longer go to the parks, the forests. We could no longer meet our friends, our families. We had to get used to no longer shaking hands, kissing, touching each other. We had to get used to keeping our distance. Our territory was limited to our houses, our balconies, our gardens. Our social life to our loved ones, those with whom we shared the same roof. The news channels on our televisions told us about the spread of the virus, the daily number of hospital admissions, the number of patients in intensive care, the number of deaths. Scientific hypotheses and political convictions were rife in all directions.

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: Earth Day 2020.
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

We had seen almost nothing or very little; everything was always happening elsewhere, far away. Then it started to happen closer and closer… We were struck, violently. We started to be afraid…

Every evening we applauded our caregivers, those who, devotedly, held our lives in their hands. And then we started applauding for the others, all the others, these invisible ones that we never thought of. Those who continued to work so that we could continue our confined lives: cashiers, garbage collectors, postmen, delivery men, etc. While some of us were looking for how to occupy our time in isolation, not to gain weight and keep fit, to organize video aperitifs, others were looking for ways to meet their most basic needs. The disparities, the inequalities exploded in our face, the enormous faults which separate us were visible. The first on the rope remembered “the first on the chore.” The beautiful expression and the uneasiness that sets in.

To make things even more painful, the weather was radiant at the beginning of spring: blue sky, hot sun. In a matter of a few days, we had gone from placing a bottle of hot water under our feet in bed to opening the window during the night. Almost a Mediterranean nightlife:  children’s cries, cooking flavors, meetings under the lamppost in the cul-de-sac. Almost a summery lightness. No more commotion in the street, no more cars. We could hear our neighbors and the chirping of returning birds. Yet time seemed thick, oily, heavy.

The danger was invisible yet very present. Radioactivity under the sun.

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: How Are You Doing?
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

Our spaces shrunk. We didn’t inhabit the world anymore, just a little space. We were going to have to learn how to get used to it and get used to the time we had too. Time, very slowly, eroded the superficial in us. We were left with only the essential. Our needs became limited. We could envision another way of being, of consuming. We were starting to think about a different future. Driven by the coronavirus pandemic, our behaviors have changed, often in a positive way. We have limited our continuous movements and our needs. We have consumed locally. We have been creative and innovative in the ways we shared, and we worked differently. We have refocused on the essentials. But it was not a choice, a primary desire. We did it because we had our backs to the wall. Without coronavirus, would we have acted like this? Most certainly not. Let us remember that we robbed the shelves of supermarkets to stock up a few days before isolating ourselves, without worrying about the needs of our neighbor and the production or transport capacities of goods—human paradox.

I am feeling discomfort thinking about it.
We reacted that way because we had our backs to the wall.

Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: How Are You Doing?
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

The slow evolution (but inevitable and now faster and faster) of the phenomena linked to global warming is such that we always thought we still had a little time.

We do not have any left.
We can’t wait any longer.

Sometimes when a toothache tickles us at night, even briefly, we vow to go to the dentist early the next morning. And then things calm down, seem to return to normal, and we postpone our appointment until next time. I feel the same is true about our behavior regarding the planet screaming at us, the emergencies we face today, right now. We can’t delay the appointment any longer. Forests are burning, glaciers are melting, many animal species have disappeared, populations are moving and fleeing wars and intolerable living conditions, inequalities are growing. These are no longer little alerts we are facing. These are real upheavals that are underway.

We must change the system, revolutionize it profoundly. We can no longer leave the decision-making power to anyone who does not have to preserve the planet (and humanity) as a primary goal. We can no longer leave power to the greedy, the selfish, the oblivious, and the warmongers. We can no longer accept it.

Of course, it is essential to act, each of us on our scale, even modestly. Our small, or big initiatives, matter. We must continue to act on all possible fronts: transport, consumption, energy production, recycling, food, agriculture, etc. We have many solutions. Now we need to apply them.

Perhaps it will not be enough, but our action must begin there. We must think about the “after system” more than about the day after.

And yet, a feeling of helplessness. Discomfort.

Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: the Human Predicament
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

I am a man, a father, I work as a printer, as a painter too. I painted a lot, a lot of faces. I had fun, graphically, with the few elements that make up the face (eyes, mouth, nose, etc.); to explore shapes and colors, to explore painting. I told about our differences, our specificities, I let my life be expressed in the images I created. I told about the men and women, the encounters, the links that unite us (or disunite us).

Today our faces have faded, our bodies have moved away.
Faceless portrait.
Disappearance of the subject.
Since March, I have worked very little.

This time of confinement was also a time of introspection. A quiet time, as the children say, almost a time, paradoxically, of rediscovered serenity, of meaning, of peace, less agitated by the usual constraints. It’s a feeling that has gone on ever since. I’ve put my priorities back in order. Letting slowness take hold is also important.

It shakes things, of course.

We must now reinvent. Live on the white surface differently, organizing the recent data in my possession. All that remains is the material and the problematic of its (new) formatting. We must also rediscover joy, pleasure, desire. The desire to continue telling the world in painting, but also to fully grasp the need for it.

Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: the Human Predicament
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

November 2020. The trees are losing their leaves and the air is humid and cool. The balconies are deserted, we are out of season. Weariness…

At the time of publication of this text, France is starting a second confinement. Health imperatives, hesitations and inability to manage this crisis are bringing us back home again. We can work and consume. We can no longer meet, the meeting places and conviviality are, again, closed. Families are exploded, social ties broken. Outside: metro, work, sleep. Our freedoms shattered, our strengths contained. Resignation and imagination at half mast. Culture is at a standstill, and its venues closed. Anything that allows for reflections, questions, exchanges, confrontations, but also wonder, reveries and elevation is no longer there. A society that is constrained extinguishes. Political incompetence and economic imperatives imprison our lives.

In the land of lights, it is starting to get a little dark.

Eric Meyer Planetary Limits

Eric Meyer 
Contribution to What’s Next for Earth Art Call: Planetary Limits
Photo courtesy Eric Meyer © 2020 

Eric MeyerEric Meyer is a painter, graphic designer, illustrator, and printer. He lives and works in Paris. Member of Action Peinture, he regularly participates in the group’s events and exhibitions. He is represented by Galerie Eric de Montbel in Paris. With the painter Ivan Sigg, he founded  the KUU collective. For three years, they published the experimental art magazine KUU, painted collaboratively, created live digital painting shows, and  numerous posters events, including the one for the Vienna Postal Art Festival.
Eric’s website: www.eric-meyer.net

This article is part of the MAHB Arts Community‘s “Covid19 Diaries Series”. If you are an artist interested in sharing your thoughts and artwork, as it relates to the disrupted but defining period of time we live in, please contact Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist, MAHB Member, and MAHB Arts Community coordinator: micheleguieu@gmail.com. Thank you. ~

The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.