A Place Where Fire Is Made

Shifting Ground was an open call for visual reports about how the events of 2020 and 2021 reconfigured our relationship with both public and private space. Selected entries were posted on the League’s Instagram account.

Ilse Cárdenas submitted illustrations reflecting on how COVID-19 forced people around the world to rethink their understanding of home.

She wrote:

In Spanish, hogar means home, but also a place where fire is made. I find this to be very accurate. To be home could mean to be in a thousand places: a garden, a school, even simply with another person.

Never has the idea of home been as present as in these past months. Suddenly the outside has become an unknown element that we can’t risk exploring. Now more than ever, we have to ensure everyone has a place where fire is being made.

This series portrays compositions based on the feeling of home and isolation. Through windows, we look into some domestic intimate moments of late nights or bright mornings. The images also explore how once-residual spaces are becoming instrumental, as rooftops and balconies become spaces of enjoyment and happiness.