Artist: Jane Kennedy
Mediums: Acrylic on Canvas board x 16
Dimension: 10cm x 10cm x 1cm
Artist Statement:
Internal Memos (Carpetland: Observations from the Outside)
This series of sixteen small paintings captures glimpses into public service offices—spaces viewed from the outside, through windows. Each work is a quiet meditation on stillness, repetition, and detachment, shaped by my own lived experience of working within the public service during the five years that spanned the COVID-19 pandemic.
These images are not grand or overtly dramatic. They are vignettes: muted light behind blinds, rows of empty desks, the hum of fluorescent lighting implied in brushstroke and shadow. The title “Carpetland,” an affectionate nickname used by insiders, points to a shared understanding of the peculiar rhythm of bureaucratic life—a rhythm disrupted and reshaped by remote work, lockdowns, and uncertainty.
Working from the outside in—both literally and metaphorically—these paintings reflect a sense of distance. What was once familiar became remote. The window became a barrier, a frame, and a metaphor. In painting these scenes, I return to moments of quiet reflection and repetition, marked by routine and time moving slowly. These are memory fragments and visual poems, exploring how place, work, and identity were altered in a time of crisis and transition.
This body of work invites viewers to pause and peer in, to consider the silent architecture of institutional life and the human presence that lingers—even when absent.
