Holiday Inn Quarantine, Melbourne Airport, Dec 2020

There is an air-conditioner that vibrates every so often

A brutalist construction whispers gently, calling me home

To the wide open road

I can almost hear the planes as they land

Like that kookaburra sitting outside in the old gum tree

Dusk settles and the McDonalds sign beams

If I stretch my eyes, my ears, my mind, I can hear the arrival of people from far off lands

Cackles, cries and the thump of late night exercise routines

Waiting patiently for the moment that we are all high on the hill at the G

Knock Knock, room service

411, 518, 611, 617

Your domino pizza arrives

And we takeaway those apples we pile on the window waiting for the ghost buyers to arrive

Until we meet again

14 days later

December 7th, 2020 the first international flight arrives in Melbourne since July. All passengers are required to quarantine in a designated government hotel for a mandatory 14 days. You do not get to choose the hotel, you do not get $200 to pass go. We all spend 14 days locked in our rooms with no fresh air, no exercise and no human contact.

Our only ability to connect with the outside world is though our phones.

I put a sign on my window, please let me take your portrait, only one person called, her name was Marie. She is French and was curious, what am I doing she asked? I want to take photos I say. To record this time - we will never have it again. Yet, I can’t photograph Marie, she lives trapped beneath me, two floors below. I can’t see her but she has made friends with a woman across the way. We can both see Ophelia but she was too shy to call me from my sign, she made Marie do it. After some coaxing, Ophelia calls me and because of Marie and the mythical old school hotel landline I agree to take my first portrait.

Who uses a landline I think? I only ever use a landline to call from my parents home.

This is literally my landline home and to the outside world.

We connect, we make plans, the next day we meet virtually. Soon after, Ophelia, Marie and I taking photos of each photo. I ask Ophelia to takes photos of us. It is an iPhone, who cares, but I want a photo of the other perspective, the one I can’t see. What is the world I can’t see outside of these four walls. This limited perspective where my frame of reference is only what I can see in front of me. As we giggle making fun poses, Flo comes to the window. Inquisitive, she has no idea what is going on, why are people laughing opposite her. I make charades, she understands. She is in the room above Ophelia with her brother, her friend, I do not know. All I know is she flew in from London. I scribble my room number on another piece of paper, we call, we chat, she poses for me.

She is a day behind us and gets out on XMAS day.

Then there are the three men, I actually haven’t met them, I don’t know their story but I have observed them for the last 14 days. They stare at me also, we wave. I capture a moment, a fleeting moment before all the curtains are closed again. Until tomorrow.

We are all together in this moment, 14 days later.

Humans are a funny bunch. Even without the ability to physically connect or even a chance to meet, somehow, we find a way, to create a community of shared experience.

December 24th, 2020