NEOCLES SERAFIMIDIS: ABEYANT LANDSCAPE

September 9th , 2022 – October 15th, 2022

In late 2021, Neo Serafimidis began a photographic exploration in response to the perception of nature and reality into which we would emerge after COVID. As it turned out, the pandemic was not over; re-emergence in any sense was suspended. Our relationship to this new world is vague and as variable and mutable as the virus itself.

Photographing at night, Serafimidis explores the natural open space along the East Bay shoreline that, during the day, functions as an escape for people seeking to get out but who are still fearful of close contact with others. A metaphor emerged. Serafimidis writes, “Venturing out to the shoreline in the evening, my focus was on the view across the bay to San Francisco and Marin, where the sun sets and the city glistens. Once night fell and I turned to go back, the path was dark, but a part of the sky, the glow of civilization, was bright.” The resulting work vacillates between pleasing aesthetics and something menacing that lurks on the path back to our previous life.