Viola Turrell
Response to Here Everywhere: Orchard by Hans Villamayor
[Song pairing: ‘Warm on a Cold Night’ by HONNE]
Towers seem to topple, stack and climb in this distorted snapshot of urban life. As we find ourselves in yet another lockdown – confined within our all too familiar surroundings – I was rather ironically drawn to Villamayor’s Here Everywhere: Orchard, depicting a world not dissimilar from my own.
I imagine it is evening time in this fictional district, and the sun is sorely missed. In her absence, the convoluted façades of apartments and office blocks instead bask under the crepuscular glow of street lamps and Zoom calls. A night that would once have beckoned company and welcomed hubbub; tonight, the streets are hushed and stagnant. Only the occasional car rolls past, muffled crunches as tires meet gravel.
Exposed amid the forbidding concrete matter is a wedge of warmth, light and hygge. Something tells me the couple inside would disagree. Or at least I like to think that they, too, attempted to occupy their vast quantities of time with a punt at yoga, crafts and pampering, before taking refuge in mindlessly staring at their screens and ordering their eleventh food delivery of the month. Indian takeaway for breakfast, why not?
For all I know, Jack and Jill here may be thriving in this environment. But observing these characters, watching their millennial decor bend and contort as our own grasp of time and space slowly escape us, I feel Villamayor’s piece speaks to many. If we are to view our current situations as metaphorical ‘orchards’, as such, perhaps we can take this time to tend and nurture the sweet fruits that will become of our perseverance.
