Between September 2020 and July 2021, the covid pandemic and the implementation of Brexit left married Artists Désirée Coral and Killian Dunne stuck in two different countries: Coral in Ecuador and Dunne in Scotland. Within this wall print instillation each artist documents and responds to their time spent apart in lockdown.
The work’s title “Concurrently Simultaneously” references 2 of the 733 words spoken by the character Lucky in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. Within the non-space of the play’s set where time is confused, undefinable, and distorted, Lucky felt that he was trapped in a net. Within “Concurrently Simultaneously” both artists explore the covid lockdown net as a page grid system. Pages and narratives have no linear progression. Moments trapped in time are documented in one instillation space as a blur of memories experienced within the physical and digital net.
The artist book was later reimagined as a digital print wall installation where all time and visual responses could be viewed at once. In keeping with the two locations the book was created in, the wall installation was exhibited in both Quito, Ecuador and Dundee, Scotland. It was first exhibited in October 2021 at the Bienal Universitaria de Arte Multimedial 21, held at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, Ecuador. It was then exhibited in February 2022 at the DJCAD Research Expo, held at the Matthew Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Scotland. In April 2022 the wall installation and an interview which explored the creation of the work was featured as part of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni online Showcase for EXPO Chicago.