DGSYR X CYBERWAREHOUSE
Benjamin Schweimler
Medium: short film
Title: The Dwelling
Date of completion: 31st of March
Location: UK
Supporting statement: Andrew arrives to visit his brother, finding his home in neglect. But the longer he stays, the stranger things become. This short surreal thriller explores themes of isolation, brotherhood and entrapment.
The Dwelling was created by three film students in our final year at Bournemouth University currently living in isolation together.
We made this film in the space of a week and appreciated the opportunity to stay productive and creative in these uncertain times. The Dwelling was shot entirely in our house and garden and the original score was composed by CornBread (Elias Juul Reichel) who worked from his home in London with who we were able to collaborate with virtually.
Inna Simonova
Medium: Acrylic and sharpie on a3 canvas
Date of completion: April 1st
Supporting statement: The distinction between the human body and the skeletal system can be easily identified. One is skin and the other is bones.
However, everyone is different. A person can be seen as black and white - or full of colour. You may look dull from the outside sometimes but within your soul or your aura, hides a world full of colour. Be careful to what you interpret straight away in a being, even salt looks like sugar
Elias Reichel
Coma Fides by CornBread, London
Laure Toutin
Supporting statement: Confinement allowed me to withdraw into myself. indeed I was able to focus on my style and my creativity. Moreover the fact of being locked up denounced me this taste for painting which allows me to travel and to feel less locked up. I painted a bathroom because in my opinion a bathroom is the moment of the day when you are alone And only focus on yourself, you take care of yourself. When you’re alone it’s easier to understand each other. so this is a necessary means.
Rosa Maltz
A couple of my favourite things ‘I like train stations’, ‘I like kitchens’, ‘I like tall buildings’ , 03/19, Brazil
Supporting statement: During my time at home I decided to challenge myself to draw backgrounds and focus on perspective, sinceit is something I really avoid doing.Here is a collection of pieces that came out of this experiment.
Joseph Kieffer
Interior in New England, 4/4/20, New England.
Supporting statement: This painting I had done during my first week of quarantine in Rhode Island (New England). I normally live and work in New York City. I have pretended that the exterior of the living room painting is summer; the actual weather outside is quite gloomy and brown. I anticipate better days ahead, though not as soon as we would like.
Phillipine Paszkiewicz
Pina 2, 22/03, Sancerre France.
Supporting statement: The confinement was an opportunity for me to devote myself fully to my personal artistic projects. The students miss this time very much because we have many projects to do for the university. Moreover, the art of mosaic is very slow. Having the opportunity to enjoy several days and hours devoted to my work has allowed me to learn a lot and gain patience. Also, as my resources were limited as I left Paris to move to the countryside in a hurry, I made this vase from recycled materials which is a new and very instructive way of working for me!
Lily Langford
March, 2/4, Cavaliere France.
Supporting statement: I wrote this poem to remind people that the beauty of nature still exists and even thrives, now that we cannot experience it, confined to our homes as we are. March is a particularly beautiful month at my home and so whilst it is a shame we cannot be outside in the heart of spring, this is a way of bringing it indoors and sharing it with all. It also reminds us that there is an important balance between the natural world and our busy world which has perhaps in recent years become offset. We can live in harmony. There is light at the end of the tunnel- and oh what a glorious light it is!
E.S Peters
'Neon Dungeon', Vancouver CA.
Supporting statement (lyrics): ‘A whole generation descending on wire, into a neon dungeon where we can not expire. Worn like a handbag, you sink like a stone, into a neon dungeon, nowhere to go. Now your locked in yer life, yer body is twisting, day turns to night. Feels like a neon dungeon.’
Holly Peters
24/03, Toronto
Supporting statement: “The shortage and need for masks was brought to my attention, so I figured why not put my skills to use and make some fun yet functional masks. I drafted the pattern for the masks myself and sew them using cotton fabrics from around my home! I’ve had to get quite resourceful and I have been forced to use fabrics that I had almost forgotten. I recently made myself a denim mask which I love since I’ve been having fun throwing different buttons and patches on it... depending on the mood of my grocery store run! “
Michelle Hanselowski
Platzwurm, 05/04, Aldingen Germany.
Medium: 80x120 cm, acrylic painting on canvas
Supporting statement: Platzwurm takes up space. This piece is all about taking, using and giving space. I feel like the earth is taking back the space it has been missing the last 200 years. It is giving back space to all its other children to flourish. I feel helplessness, fear and maybe a little bit of wonder and gratitude, all at the same time. It makes excited for what is next to come. Maybe I am waiting for the worms to take over.
Lydia Sze Ki Fung
conceptual part of my collection / project Nebulous Erotica, 04/07, London.
profile : https://www.rca.ac.uk/students/lydia-sze-ki-fung/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/lydiafungsk/
Supporting statement: My name is Lydia Fung, I am a visual and womenswear designer based in London. I came across your instagram profile and I would love to be part of this amazing curation
This is a collection about a collective of women,
My body of work is inherently a women’s narrative, the subject is not solely “feminism.”But it is for you to see whether you want to be the subject or the object in a relation or a connection or anything within an interaction.
The images I created aim to express the freedom of endlessness, formless erotica. There are no ends and beginnings of bodies in my images, every interaction, every object, subject is formless.
There is no need to concretise everyone and everything, there is no need for forms in my world, in my perception. What lies beneath, between, is the energy, the naked essence itself is all that matters.
The erotica, the essence and tension however is not only formed between two parties. In my scenario, my world, it is formed between the subject, the object and the viewer. The role is unfixed, is nebulous, is all you.
I want the viewers to see my representation of the female figure as an essence , both strong and soft, The jackets appear sensual and soft, but they are also strong and structured.
the characteristic blurring of functions in my photographs is also expressed in my garments, through semi visible slits and cutouts. And by layering them with other layers underneath, everything becomes blurry , hazy and essential.
My work speaks for myself and people who are experiencing the same thing/phase New Age Intimacy. I don't see how quarantine and self-isolation as an abnormal period of my life, as I have always been experiencing the remoteness and distant part of an interaction and relationship. Having said that, I was sent away to a boarding school 13 hours flight away from my home town when I was 14. I have always been away from home, family, friends and lovers ever since. Sooner or later, the differentiation of home and away has started to seem very ambiguous, and my sense of belonging of both places has become very neutral. I don't feel like either of them is where I should be or where I'm from, hence allowing me to be really good at saying goodbye to people and places. I also physically appear to be less emotionally attached to them because a smiley goodbye makes people around you feel better, but my heart is actually bleeding with tears.
Most of my emotional and intimate interactions were being done remotely and digitally, people may ask why can't I find someone, a friend or a partner in the same city as I am? I could, but I want to feel closer to my root because I don't feel like my root is where I'm from. That is why I wanted to start a project like this, an exploration of new age intimacy, digital interaction, the tension of two people in a relationship, what defines that? What does it feel like when you both are so different and yet so alike? What does it mean to be close with someone but at the same time being so far away from them physically and emotionally? Can it be both? The idea of two people being together and apart is just so intriguing to me, we fight, we ran away, we made up, we cuddle.... And it seems like there's no better time to start a project like this when everyone can relate.
Emile Hyden Lundell
Jo men det går, tackar som frågar (Självporträtt)”/”Doing alright, thanks for asking (Self-portrait) 05/04, Edinburgh.
Supporting statement: ”I believe in being earnest and frank without being private. As a person who is deemed “high functioning”, not only do others often find it difficult to believe that I am struggling with mental health, but I myself often do not feel entitled to acknowledging it. (After all, when it comes down to it, I’ve been doing so much worse, not to mention the fact that I am safe and healthy and well fed.)
When people ask me how I’m doing, I try to be honest with them: I’m not sure if it helps destigmatizing mental health conversations but it does seem to help me interrogate myself about my own wellbeing. Unfortunately, because of the customs of social interaction, it doesn’t generally invite me to be vulnerable and so it doesn’t help me see the larger picture.
This self-portrait was made as all my friends left for their home countries, my mom let me know she was in self-quarantine, I awaited response on my request to interrupt my studies, and my friend noted that only once in self-isolation she had realized how badly she’d overworked herself. I am still laying on the floor, back aching, head throbbing, glass empty as I stare at the ceiling. Anyone got a chair they want to get rid of, let me know. Watercolour pencils on paper.”
Georgia Groundland
Daydreams are confined, simple, shut-in spaces, painting, 2/4/2020, Manchester UK.
@georgiagroundart
Supporting statement: Hi, my name is Georgia Groundland and I’m a Fine Art student at Leeds Arts University. My current paintings focus on the ‘poetry of fabrics’. I see the body as the home, and the fabrics that clothe our bodies act as a poetic medium to express to the outside world our true characters. Fabrics can be sentimental, hold memories of the past, exhibit a sense of abstraction. Our exterior acts as a home for the depth of interior, and here the material and the immaterial work hand in hand.
Talia Ellis Gilmour
Daily Decay, 19-27/03/2020, Leeds
Supporting statement: The daunting reality of humanities collective ‘end’ appears conceivably close, impermanence manifests itself as a part of the contemporary condition. The speeding up of the climate crisis has compounded the reality of our diminishing future on this planet. The nihilistic tendencies of this piece reflect the artistic need to grieve. After reading the works of Judith Butler I have been drawn to the conceptualization of grief as a political tool. In creating an idol of the future a contemplative space is formed between the image and the viewer. The works open up questions of time, uncertainty, legacy, mystery and control. ‘Daily Decay’ operates as a dialogue between (myself) an artist of the present and the manifesto of the artists of the past. Through an engagement with artistic concerns across centuries this work uncovers the fundamental universal questions which plaque us both as artists and humans. The work engages with the nature of creation in the face of impermanence, immortality and finitude. The piece operates functionally as daily diary entries in which I worked through the philosophical ramifications mortality has on the role of the artist. These concerns correlate with my own artistic practice since my recent works have been made to deliberately decay, dissolve and disappear as a means of dealing with impermanence.
Amy Stevens
Rosalia, April 2nd, Bedfordshire
Supporting statement: Life, death and rebirth and their symbolistic connection to the Greek Goddess Persephone; the deity residing over Spring and Queen of the Underworld, are what fuels my practice and form the basis for the concept behind Rosalia. Tied roses hang on a wooden board, battered by wind, rain and time. Their leaves lose their vibrant green, growing brittle. The petals, lush and fragrant, now smell of decay and death, rotting down to a brown, mushy paste as seen in the Polaroid photographs that record the decomposition. Though many may perceive this to be a negative transformation; the metamorphosis is natural - the cycle completes when the remains are discarded in the compost, continuing on in the form of fertiliser. The title, Rosalia, is an homage to the festival of roses, a commemoration and religious practice in which Roman citizens cared for their dead. The duality of the event; its aspects surrounding life and death, reinforce the connection to Persephone, who was dubbed Proserpina in Ancient Rome.
Zahra Coulthard
Seeing through Touch, April 2020, Hampshire.
Statement: We currently find ourselves in an environment where COVID-19 has caused us to have to reassess the way we consume the world around us through our senses, our relationships and our perception of self. We no longer have the freedom to touch others like we once did before social distancing. The closest some of us can get to the touch of another’s skin is our own. Our sense of identity reflected to us through our interactions with others, is changing beyond recognition due to the separation and dispersal of the world’s population into isolation at home. Communication is now limited to online platforms, letters and the few people we may share our homes with. Through the elimination of excess and distractions, the present moment is becoming more acute as we are allowed to descend into the unknown territory of boredom: a state few of us have had the luxury of experiencing in our fast paced social media packed lives. Through my drawings I experimented with the new-found way I am experiencing the world and my environment after the COVID-19 lock down. In the silence of life after finding myself back at home in Hampshire after leaving university in London prematurely, my life felt like it had come to a sudden stop. However, what I have come to realise is that by slowing down, I’ve become much more aware of the senses of my body beyond sight. We live in the Instagram age of the image, where vision is the privileged sense. But through the dramatic change of life as we know it, we’ve been given an opportunity to become aware of ways to experience the familiar in a different way. Studying art, in a media rich city and scrolling through Instagram every day I heavily relied on my sense of sight. But in my series of self-portraits I attempted to convey my new-found self-conscious relationship with myself without the aid of a mirror, through my own eyes: by feeling the contours of my face and by using my sense of touch.
Elizabeth Farrell
I was kissed before I finished my training, 07/04, Alberta Canada
Statement: This work is a personal response to Claude Cahun's 1927 self-portrait I am in training, don't kiss me. I was fascinated by the way Cahun explored the topics of gender, sexuality and gender expression. This portrait was a way to feel a sense of ownership and renewed agency over my own body, and gender expression. Additionally, I aimed to embody the same impudence Cahun proudly promotes in their work. Even in isolation, there needs to be space for impudent women who harness their boldness and shamelessness as a source of empowerment. I encourage you all to find some way to explore gender and embody impudence.
Henry Glover
Quarantine Diary I and Quarantine Diary II, 01/04, Sutton London.
Statement: I produced a series of drawings in the second week of Lockdown. I was with my girlfriend and we were both making work, staying busy through the days. We had to adapt and I found myself using Emma as a model a lot more and incorporating the interior space that I never normally do in my paintings. Sketching and drawing loads due to the lack of a studio also helped me to slow down and pay attention to the details. My work is about intimacy and touch, and my own personal relationships. I feel as though I have focused closer to my own immediate surrounding, instead of trying to capture the symbolic notion of a particular feeling. I have been able to capture the moment there and then in these drawings.
Tobias Orderud
Evidence of quarantine, 14/04/2020, Rågeleje, Denmark
Statement: I do sketches and pencil studies of the day passing - and this piece is a very good representation of how my time is spent. An erratic mixture of being in nature, in my living room, on youtube and staring at flowers. These graphite sketches usually lead to individual gouache paintings, but in this case- a collage of quarantine experience. I am enjoying how these social restraints are forcing me to reflect on my environment, and how all the work I produce from observation during this time automatically becomes a cohesive collection of work.
Lee Shott
Man wearing gas mask, passenger 1, passenger 2, portrait with sky, 01/03.
Statement: Combining observations with diverse approaches to painting; my work subjectively captures the contemporary culture of communities throughout the U.K. The work focuses on human interactions and the idiosyncrasies based on my participation in day-to-day life; from observing people and the surroundings whether by going on day and night-time walks or commuting by public transport. I am intrigued by the human psyche, from viewing passersby and passengers, capturing voyeuristic perspectives with implications of surveillance, becoming a surveyor of my surroundings and depicting isolated portraits and landscapes.
I am also inspired by current social events and the imagery found in news papers and other media, my subject matter can range from family portraits to political images ranging from police men to figures wearing gas masks.
The paintings have bold and visceral brushwork to capture the source material, becoming subjective in the process which generates melancholic imagery with pathos; reacting quickly, often completing a painting in one sitting.
Maurice Matua
The Bathroom Is My Temple, 14/04, London .
Statement: ‘The Bathroom Is My Temple’ comes from me staying in the bathroom for too long during these strange times. It has been more like a sanctuary for me where ideas come into fruition, where I read and sketch, and smoke and think. The bathroom offers a sort of bubble for me that compels me to look deeper within myself, my mortality, my darkness and my strengths.
Hannah Mallaby
Visible Touch, 14/04, UK.
@northerncavedrawings
Statement: I have created a series of work to represent the uncommonly thought of situation that a lot of people in romantic relationships are going through right now with not being able to physically see or touch their significant other. It has come to my attention that I’ve not seen anyone talk about this in the art world yet during lockdown. The struggle of the unavailability of intimacy that you once had on tap. I bet it’s a big shock and massive radical change for a lot of people and it’s more than likely making relationships suffer right now with not knowing how long we’re going to be stuck in this limbo for.
Emma MacDonald
Self-Portrait (The 27th day in my room), gouache on canvas, 16/03, England.
Statement: Almost a month ago I returned to my family home and was immediately placed under a strict quarantine in which I found myself stuck with no-one but myself, in my little childhood bedroom. What was meant to be two weeks in isolation turned into four, as a result of some health complications, and eventually I turned to painting to distract myself. I felt a self-portrait was the natural response to this isolation; if ever there were a time for self-reflection, it was now.
Nikolas L.B
Foie Gras Antithesis, Quarantine EP, 17/04, Vancouver B.C.
Statement: 'The Foie Gras Antithesis' was started as an attempt to pander to the overstimulated and high functioning mind amidst modernity.
I wanted to make music that hopped around as much as the brain on the internet, and through that speak personally about my own confusions and contradictions arising from this overwhelmed state. The project was started before quarantining began in Canada, but final mixing and mastering was completed around April 1st and the music video for 'Terrify' was filmed and edited entirely in social isolation between April 1st and April 14th.
I wrote, recorded and mixed everything myself at home. It was mastered by Colin Spratt.
Hugo Hamlet
Discover My Body, Video Made by Lily Ashley, 02/04, New Forest UK.
Statement: My girlfriend and I are stuck in the woods in south England and have been busy painting, making clothes, music and videos. At the beginning of isolation everyone kept joking it would be a time of creativity, contemplation and sex...we focused on the latter with this song and video...of course it turned out to be more comedy than pornography but thats who we are and who says laughter isn't sexy?
Max Marshall
SE London.
My process focuses on creating pieces that bring together a collective of symbols in a sort of cypher, which can be revisited and contextualized but not necessarily decoded. The work looks at ideas around mythologisation, pictographic languages and ritualism; the overarching themes come from the reoccurrence of certain signifiers such as ight emitters (lamppost, sun, lightbulb), plant/animal/human hybrids and tools of industry. I create images instinctively, as a way of accessing a collective unconscious from which humans inherit core symbols and images that surpass verbal language and speak instead to ancient cultural assocations. Roland Barthes and Joseph Campbell inform a lot of my thinking about how contemporary myth can be demonstrated in image making, and how all things can serve as a sign of something else. I work across lots of mediums but most frequently in painting, printmaking and jewellery.
Joel Kerr
THERE ARE WORSE PRISONS, April 7th 2020, Wales.
@R.O.D.E.O.6.6
Statement: It’s about the fact that even in prison they say “There are worse prisons”. Appreciate your space as it could be worse.
Nell Mitchell
Quarantine Diaries, 25th March - ongoing, Guilford Surrey. @nellmitchell_
Statement: ‘I have been working on an ongoing illustration piece called ‘Quarantine Diaries’ ever since I came back to my family home following lockdown, shortly after teaching during my final year studying Fine Art, Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art was suspended. Desperate for something to keep me creatively awake and stimulated, I began work on my Quarantine Diaries as an outlet for my stress and frustration at the situation that was, and still is, taking place. I have always found a solace in writing, especially when combined with an element of humour and transparency, which allows it to be universal. So, my illustrations are autobiographical yet descriptive of simple things that everybody will be going through at this time, and my hope in making the work is to produce something that is relatable and accessible for friends, family and whoever else may come across it, to enjoy and take comfort in.
Nina Constantine
Tranquil Sky, 22nd March, UK.
Sam Vladimirsky
Shave the Beast & Avatar: Infant, April, New Jersey.
To describe the state in which I must produce work in the age of COVID-19, I borrow a line from the poet Paige Lewis: I feel “all stopped up with dread.” To this monosyllabic adjective, I would add anxiety, physical exhaustion, anger, boredom, and ambivalence. Forced to move back into my childhood home in New Jersey, I find myself in the one place that I never wanted to make pictures. Naturally, if I was to produce any work at all, it would have to be about these newfound conditions themselves.
Lucy Stewart (aka Poor Mother)
Repentance Part I / Repentance Part II, III, IV, V, oil pastel and pencil, 26th March 2020, London. 25 cm x 18 cm.
Statement: Poor Mother is an art student currently studying at The Slade in London. Their practice involves speculative fiction, drawing and performance, exploring plasmic states of being 'in between' and their own gender dysphoria.
Repentance Part I and Part II investigate preliminary isolation; the creeping dread of not knowing what is to come. They burrow and hibernate in domestic settings, evoking some feeling of the apocalyptic which inevitably seeps through to the interior. Both creature's decisions to stay indoors are laced with distraction in various forms personifying an ultimately surreal situation. I'm interested in pursuing how such situations have been normalised, and the transition from what might initially seem unthinkable to the present moment. If art were to follow the same pattern, what stage of its development are we currently in?
I would like to think that it isn't important, but every day I change my mind. By drawing and living within four walls, I am limited. However reality is getting further from the norm every day. I believe that we are in the process of forming our own realities and places of hibernation in an oxymoronic surreal reality.
Reagan Warwick
When the Bow Hand Falls, April 1st.
A very short film about a violinist who has been injured. She is slowly being driven mad by her inability to practice her craft. Music is her life all she knows, she can’t stand not being able to practice. She’s going crazy and her life is spiraling out of control.
Sam Peak
Touching the untouched room, 2nd April, 2020.
@peakeling
Statement: I make digital renderings of my body, often distorted and visually confusing. I mutate realities. Using myself as the main subject I explore the limits and boundaries of different spaces, often playing with scale, proportion and composition. An act within a space formed by the human body usually performative. The reason I do what I do is because of the curiosity I have of understanding myself. The urge to be present in a space. To capture my body in these distorted realms of shifting realism. The connection and interaction between nature, technology and the body are eminent throughout my work.
This video performance explores the unloved, discarded, neglected and decaying parts of a space. Instead of discarding them I show care through use of products that we as humans use to look after our own bodies, moisturiser, cream, powder. Appreciation through the direct physical interaction between surface and skin.
Isolation has made me think more creatively in the space that I am currently in. I am enjoying the way that it is influencing my work and I think that we should make the most of our environments that we are forced with. It gives us a chance to explore unseen environments, like the basement.
Noah Sherrin
Kaddish / Hanoi, March 26.
Statement: Creating sounds based in the patient sculpting of texture, that have the obscured beauty of a recording lost to time, Noah Rosa explores the eternal themes of spirituality and space. Through Solar Bodies, is a collection of instrumental works traversing noise drenched dream-pop, spaced out Americana and hymn-like ambience. Through Solar Bodies sees Noah Rosa attempting to capture the material and mythological essence of places that have held importance in his life and travels. ‘Mt Tuam Observatory’ delves into the Coast Salish story of Sxeleken (s-HAY-lu-kun) a man who received incredible power from the Thunderbird only to abuse it, leading to his downfall and transformation into a dangerous being whose essence still haunts the mountain. ‘Hanoi Sunrise’ begins with field recordings from a balcony in Hanoi, Vietnam where he lived for two months.
Joe Blain
What Is The Smell of Spring?, April 24th, Glasgow Scotland.
What Is The Smell of Spring?
This air around a hanging twig
by Sunday sets into its soul:
A bloom, so dense with sunny love
it droops its face toward the ground.
In the cloying wettened earth
lie purses filled with settled silt:
The dead.
Come
let's say goodbye.
Statement: It is springtime. The sky is blue again. The flowers are blooming. Life has returned to us, but death is on the mind. I feel like the universe is challenging me to find the difference between the two. I don't mean to sound pessimistic though -- I have a feeling that the answer we're all looking for will be a satisfying one!
Brenda Colling
April 2020, New York USA.
1. Counting the Days
2. Play a Song for Me
3. Cache Bouche
4. Don’t Touch Me
5. Mouth of the Shark
6. It’s a Wrap
7. The Animals Cried, We didn’t listen.
8. Go in Glory
Statement: When external business ended, I delved into my collection of textiles and artifacts to create this series of mask portraits. The themes evoke the tensions and changes that are occurring in our present world. Creating is the best activity for alleviating the anxiety of isolation and uncertainty.
Wolfgang Gmoser
25th of April, Vancouver B.C.
Statement: This is a series of four short films. They are textural explorations of manufactured sound and manufactured space. I made each film short so they aren't boring. They may still be. These are my quarantined dreams, my Frankenstein’s, my memories, frustrations and fabrications. When you watch these films you experience something fundamentally real and totally fake, like the flavour blue raspberry it both exists and at the same time barely resembles what is promised outside of the colour blue (which is more or less present in all the films).
Jade Ashleigh
Occult Series, April 2020.
Statement: Spliced, assembled and bound. Misshapen and distorted female beauty, mutilated and distorted by the male gaze.
Delving into the excess of the archive, Jade-Ashleigh explores the depths of the occult, exploring women who historically were under male dominance and deemed witches. The sexualised media almost mocks this ideology and exposes the direction of brutality, to highlight female victimisation within glamour and sexuality.
Piles of collated images and documents scatter across her studio creating a comforting chaos. Working across mediums allows for an emphasis on process and for viewers to connect with the collections. Jade-Ashleigh’s work emerges from experiments with the analogue processes of film and photomontage, exploring the history of the archive and women’s identity and desires within it.
Leon Auchterlonie
Humanity Mood, Argentina, March 28.
Statement: A situation outside the scope of a single collective conclusion, puts in check and humiliates the spirit of society.Neo-Medieval PostModernism: Beauty and perfection burst by a runaway plague.Photoperformance By Leon Auchterlonie (Argentinian Multidisciplinary visual artist), Picture taken by Juan Bartoszek. A team Made Composition.
Alma Leandra
Butterfly, 23rd March, Berlin, Germany
Statement: In the beginning I was unkeen to write a statement about my film, simply because I feel, occasionally it’s better not to explain, to let others think for themselves. However, from personal experience I am aware it can be very insightful to hear the artist's side, and for that reason I will write something. In the hopes that the film will be viewed without any prior knowledge, forming one's own opinion first and then (if desired) one can read my take on it.
I was born and grew up in Berlin, I am half Hungarian and would visit a little Hungarian town situated by a lake every summer. I spent my summers doing all sorts of random questionable things a child could possibly do. But my fascination for the butterflies in our garden outweighed all others. I had a blue net that was attached to a wooden stick, and with it, I tried for full afternoons on end, to catch one of these beautiful creatures. I never managed. I was alone with my thoughts one day and revisited this memory, which led me to realise how thankful I am to have never managed to catch one. But that’s the admirable beauty of innocence, I didn’t know. So how could I know. It protected me. I filmed the footage a while back, it always remained untouched till one evening in quarantine I had a sudden urge to create something. I wrote and recorded the poem first and then created the film.
Dermot Fowler
The City is Full of Violence, 2nd April 2020, UK.
Statement: Quarantine has provided a change in working environment, with inevitable implications for my creative output. While I was previously surrounded by a studio full of people, I am now ensnared in a bedroom full of books. This drawing was largely the result of viewing the world from the perspectives of authors and illustrators such as Clifford Harper, Edgar Allen Poe, Harlan Ellison and Daniel Clowes. It is completely detached from the real world because that is the position I find myself in.
Tom Lieberman
'It’s Hard to be a Hugger Anymore', USA.
IT'S HARD TO BE A HUGGER ANYMORE
Not one to keep my distance, I'm he who likes to touch.
I value tactile pleasures. I love them very much.
But due to current circumstance, I've changed my cuddly ways.
It's hard to be a hugger, nowadays.
Once was a time of open arms, of handshakes and high-fives.
When one's approach was welcomed, and we strayed far from our hives.
But now is the new normal as we navigate this maze.
It' hard to be a hugger, nowadays.
When happy days are here again, we'll soon resume our paces.
We'll once again be far too close, and in each others' faces.
Til better days I'll count the ways, it cuts me to my core.
It's hard to be a hugger anymore.
Tough days these are for huggers, yes, but for all others too.
We humans are such social beings, every Lee and Lou.
But now we stay inside and hide, we binge watch and we graze.
It's hard to be a hugger, nowadays.
My hands were meant to hold you dear, but what am I to do?
So I'll just wash them once again, and send my love to you.
Although my hug is virtual, let's hope it's just a phase.
It's hard to be a hugger, nowadays.
When happy days are here again, we'll soon resume our paces.
We'll once again be far too close, and in each others' faces.
Til better days I'll count the ways, it cuts me to my core.
It's hard to be a hugger anymore.
(c) 2020, T.F.Lieberman, all rights reserved
Georg Wilson
Caught Red-Handed! , pencil on card, Cornwall UK, 25 x 25xm.
Statement: ‘GOBLIN MARKET’ is an ongoing series of paintings and drawings inspired by Christina Rossetti’s eponymous poem from 1862. ‘Goblin Market’ is a Victorian tale of temptation and myth that follows two sisters and their encounters with a group of goblin men, who offer them delicious fruits, for a price. The moral overtones in Rossetti’s narrative inflict strict gender roles on the sister characters, and work in parallel to a Christian narrative of salvation. But the awkward girls in my work have got bored of the goblins. They ignore their tempting offers of fruits and instead, they sulkily look the other way - or reverse the poem’s gendered roles to loom over the goblins, who skulk away, blushing. ‘In the haunts of goblin men’, teases out a moment of goblin-vulnerability that does not take place in the poem. The power dynamics are reversed, and Goblin cowers away from maiden, who whisks him away by the scruff of his neck. Goblin is always shy in my paintings. During the lockdown, I return to extracts of Rossetti’s poem regularly, picking out sections at random to interrogate.
Irith Fuks & Leonard Barkley
Pleasant Reminiscent - Fluorescent Adolescent (Quarantine parody), USA.
Statement: A song about the experience of being in quarantine by the newly formed band: Leonard, Feonard and Deonard. Since we had to stay inside, all we used was a bug spray for the crash sound, pots and pans as drums, a guitar, ukelele and scissors. The melody came from the song Fluorescent Adolescent.
Phoebe McMullan
1) 'isolation', April 2020, London, 37 x 29 cm
2) 'tiger king', April 2020, London, 100 x 80 cm
Statement: Phoebe McMullan is an artist who has previously graduated from Brighton University in 2019 with a BA Fine Art Painting. Previously she studied at the Royal Drawing School and she is now expanding on her practise in London through freelance and co-operative work. The quarantine has had a huge impact on my work it has finally given me time to create. As an artist finding the balance between a regular job and producing art is one of the hardest things to do. It's during times like these that connections are so vitally important, and art is a significant way to do that, even if that connection is as simple as a shared enjoyment of something you or another person has made.
Firstly is 'isolation'. A piece directly inspired by quarantine. This showcases the park bench where I have grown to find solace usually venturing out at night when there are few people about. It's a place to sit and think, or just sit. The four moons are based on a phenomena that occurred in my room for about a week, where the angle of my window caused the moon to refract into four, the moons also reflect the passing of time. The back of the quilt is an expansion of the moon motif.
Secondly is 'tiger king' this quilt is the best representative of how often my work is a form of surreal escapism. It is a play on the mythology of the rabbit jumping over the moon. However the image is reversed, hot and fiery. The rabbit is a tiger, a dangerous predator the Moon is a slightly creepy Sun. The idea of the quilt becomes even more interesting within the context of quarantine, it is a symbol of the home and family, with many quilts being passed down through generations. This juxtaposition between home and the surreal landscape provides an interesting tension to the piece.
Leon Kist-Chancelier
My Funny Weltschmerz, 4th of May, Peterborough, UK.
I’ve been extremely fortunate to never have faced any great struggle or sadness. I lived in awe of how life remains beautiful and amusing despite its daily countless atrocities and tragedies until I learned the true extent of the world’s darkness through many conversations with my girlfriend, who has become disenchanted with life due to various awful, traumatic events subjected to her. It took the eyes of someone I truly loved for me to realise this world’s horror; I’ve grown to hate it for being so cruel. Stuck in quarantine, I’ve had time to reflect on how life dares to hurt and scar so many innocent and good people, and time to translate these musings to poetry, the only way I know I can express myself.
Dandy Day
Chess Board, May 4th, Ammerdown House Sommerset.
right so, my mum died almost a year ago now and i hate not being busy because i just get in a shit mood. I started this chess board at the very start of quarantine because I knew it was going to take me a long time to make. I use art to keep myself distracted, so i don't think about my loss. Chess is a big thing in the studio at Central St Martins so I thought I would make a cool one, seeing as I wont be going bak to the studio any time soon. It's funny, the game of chess becomes irrelevant and the process of making the set now becomes the game. I'm not at home, nor do I feel like I have a home at this point in my life but PERKS because I'm isolating in a fuck off manor house in Somerset with my girlfriend, who's alright company. My art at the moment is partly about distracting myself, as i have said twice already sorry i need to keep myself busy constantly otherwise I start to be a dick to my girlfriend. So yeh there we go, it took me about 6 weeks to make this so that was a good stint of distraction, don't know what I'll do now though seeing as now one knows how to actually play shit!
Kate Wixley
A Digital Childhood, May, London UK.
@Katewixley
Statement: My name is Kate Wixley and I’m a multi-disciplinary designer from Cape Town. I moved back to the UK in 2016 to study design, and I am currently in my third year at Central Saint Martins in Graphic Communication Design. Although I’m pursuing a degree in graphic design, my interests span other disciplines. Finding my primary inspiration in Fine Art, my work encompasses printing, textiles, sewing, collage, photography and illustration. I describe myself as an image-maker, with the medium dependent on the concept.I'm interested in contradictions, whether this be an nostalgic mass consumed product, or a technological doll house. The subversion of expectations, the wink to the viewer, is a moment that I'm interested in capturing. I often pull visuals from contemporary culture, as they are immediately recognisable, and you can play with social assumptions surrounding this object or idea. A Digital Childhood is a dollhouse about growing up in the information age. Each room is dedicated to a different obsolete technology from my childhood, a physical nostalgia. The style is inspired by the Victorian era, as many turned to nostalgia during a time of great social change. The work consists of a physical Victorian dollhouse, and a Virtual Reality historic tour, which I am currently working on.
Rachel Loh
You Are These Four Walls, 5th May 2020, Singapore.
Statement: You Are These Four Walls is a recorded performative art piece contemplating the long-term effects of being in quarantine where our egos we have built as individuals in a collective is becoming harder and harder to justify building and feeding. Where we realise that it's much better to let go and be than to compete. This work serves to explore the fundamental purpose of being, individually as well as collectively. The performance has no outcome and the lack of it serves as a space, offering it to viewers to think about our current state of being in this pandemic.
Natasha Broom
Untitled, May.
Statement: It’s how the garden is starting to look now
It’s how the walks we do everyday are starting to look now
Alexandra Kinga Fekete
Urban Venus, 23rd of April, Berlin.
Statement: Lockdown self-portrait, an homage to Botticelli’s Venus, composed by pictures taken of empty buildings and streets of Berlin in the period of isolation.
In the roles of fish appear some iconic species among others:The Door Called Pablo Neruda, The Berlin TV Tower, Babylon, Volksbühne, Checkpoint Charlie, Unter den Linden, Bebelplatz. In my work I often use classical paintings, religious symbolism as reference points. As all museums, galleries closed down around the world and I had enough time to be lost in the memories of childhood, mostly the Grand European family tours in my teens, I decided to pay tribute to Botticelli and the Italian Renaissance.
In Berlin Lockdown I spent hours biking around the empty streets. In this meditative,
slowed down space the buildings appeared so sharp, so present, almost alive, much
more vibrant than ever before, even the ugliest ones shined. Obsessively took pictures
of those buildings not knowing how those images will serve me. Then it became clear, this is my natural habitat. These buildings for me are like trees in the forest. The city is
and always has been my forest, my landscape.This picture symbolises isolation, loss of nature, in the same time comfort in finding beauty in the conventional and a childish positivism that everything will be alright and one does not stand alone. We create our world.
Tori Simpson
Eggy Breakfast / Watered the Houseplant / Daily Exercise / Saturday Night Takeaway, Linocut printed on A5 recycled paper, April, UK.
@torisimpsss
For me, lockdown has dramatically increased the time I have to spend on my art practice. Having completed my foundation at city and guilds last year, I started this year at UCL, studying Social Sciences. In all the commotion of first year, I spent very little time making art. With exams now being cancelled, I have found myself with plenty of free time to go back to my art practice and refresh my making skills. The pieces submitted come from a recently started lino series. In this series I have illustrated the activities that normally don't seem important or enjoyable. However in lockdown, when we are unable to access the same breath of activities and events, these everyday tasks have morphed into notable moments, and sometimes form the highlight of the day. One thing that I hope i will maintain following the lockdown is the willingness to devote time and gleam enjoyment from some of these small tasks, that pre lockdown I normally would have rushed through in order to get to the more ‘exciting’ (and now less allowed) parts of my day. I also hope to maintain my art practice following lockdown, now that I have had the time to immerse myself in it again.
Avital Balwit
The Game Cannot Wait; Whoever I know here is elsewhere; WE MUST MAKE PORN TO PROMOTE QUANTUM RESISTANT CRYPTOCURRENCY; The Bright Rust of Intent, March/April, Charlottesville, Virginia and Portland, Oregon, USA.
Statement: Like many in the “work/study-from-home” class, I have been trying to use these largely empty days to be creative. Some days it is easier than others to tune out the background buzz of apocalyptic anxiety. Three of these poems were inspired by prompts from The Atlantic’s 2020 poetry contest. The prompt “Write about something you can see from your window” inspired “The Game Cannot Wait,” which ultimately won the contest. The prompt “Write about the last dream you had” inspired both “Whoever I know here is elsewhere” and “WE MUST MAKE PORN TO PROMOTE QUANTUM RESISTANT CRYPTOCURRENCY,” although, as you may be able to tell, they were based on different dreams. Finally, “The Bright Rust of Intent” is an older poem that I revisited and edited during quarantine, written based on an economics class titled “AI and the Future of Work.” I research technology policy, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence safety, so themes of algorithmic conquest seep into my writing. While I wrote poetry (most unspeakably bad) as a child, I have only returned to it recently as an adult. My poetic influences include Theodore Roethke, Ocean Vuong, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Aracelis Girmay. My work investigates the natural world, the uneasiness of technological change, what it feels like to live in a time of environmental and societal breakdown, and the standard navel-gazing of the young.
The Game Cannot Wait
I hear the strike, the cries, shaken from my sleep
(my thoughts quickening to grief) I move swiftly
to the window to see the tennis courts swelter
in the morning heat, the shirtless bodies glistening,
challenging the sickness with their youth, their verve,
their carelessness, they cluster and disperse,
the game continuing.
Later in the day, two women, grey haired and bent,
clamber over the low locked fence and begin their
own repartee, no frailness in their gait, they laugh
and swing, the ball trembling, arching heavenward,
returning like a kiss from distant lips, like another
morning woken to.
Whoever I know here is elsewhere
The rooms of the house are brightly colored, myriad. Whoever I know here is elsewhere. They have given my love and I two twin beds, and we are guests, uncertain amongst their pottery. The dinner party starts half-attended. Somewhere on the rock ledge of some earth-end cliff (the New Zealand of Lord of the Rings) she (I?) rides a horse towards peril, dress flowing, hooves close to the edge. In a market, somewhere after danger and dinner, I grasp fleshy heirloom tomatoes while my friends speak of revolution. Mundanity sprouts like wild chamomile and I wake to robins and construction.
WE MUST MAKE PORN TO PROMOTE QUANTUM RESISTANT CRYPTOCURRENCY.
I know it deeply, immediately. I contact my favorite stars.
I must ask about the tradeoffs, the details.
I’ve called a General a C*NT and he’s taken it badly.
WE ARE FLEEING. WE’VE REACHED THE RIVERBANK.
My accomplice is cutting the cords when the firing starts,
We are mid water when apprehended.
I do not renounce my words. Jia Tolentino
(Some thin version, more essence than woman) is there,
along with some water dampened, mournful pages.
But no essays now, I am a woman of doing what must be done.
The Bright Rust of Intent
Will your job remain, when they automate
the automation? When neural nets catch all?
Who will survive among you? Who rot?
The professor speaks to silence. We wait.
Had he called me, I’d have hazarded: A poet,
Professor. For though I know code spits verse
both fine and intricate, indistinguishable
from touted postmodern froth, I still believe
that on some level we demand human pain
in print, a beating heart, light opening
on the bright rust of intent. Will they know
the difference? But if not I, who else will stand
at my readings? What teenagers will idolize
the life they imagine in sunrooms full of books,
no futility, no guilt that the world withers
and that someone dies somewhere
while lines are rearranged. And if I cannot
bear that weight, you ask? A martyr.
Tautologically, the machine leaves that to me.
There are still things to die for, and code
cannot be beatified. Fear for yourself Professor,
for analysts and executives. Their arts will fall
to the machine, but mine? No adjusting
of the gradient, no larger data set
can teach the subtle art of unplanned
obsolescence, of bleeding out with doubt.
Darcey Stickely
Next Time You’re Under Quarantine, 29th March 2020, Cambridge.
Statement: The submission is a list of small, practical tasks that help someone like me get through a strange period of unwarranted free time. Its format is a sequence of ideas instead of a piece of longform prose, which lends itself to the more neurotic of quarantiners, in its neutral and only slightly emotional organized format. Though it is short, I believe the content encapsulates everyday life for quite a few people in my position; their uni life, previously their entire existence, being cut short by something they can’t see, control or didn’t think relevant until March of this year. Addressing the brevity directly, however; it was originally written in this way to be applicable across more than just quarantine (as mentioned, I’d somehow been in lockdown once before this year, first for political unrest and now for a global pandemic), but also to reflect a general shortness on my / my friends’ current outlook. We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know when it will end, so we keep things short and non specific so as not to get our hopes up for what the future could hold or prevent us from doing.
Rose Hermann
Rat Queen, May 19th, B.C Canada.
Statement: Painting has been both a distraction from my problems and an outlet for the emotions and stress they’re causing. I'm not normally a negative person but considering there’s so much negativity in the world right now, outside of my own life, it’s hard not to bring some of those feelings into my art.
I feel privileged to live where I do, to be able to go outside without putting anyone at risk, I recognize a lot of people don’t have that freedom.
To make art under the theme of covid-19 and social distancing, I would feel dishonest if I only painted from my perspective.
Honor Dansie
Cambridge
Honor Dansie - Although we are all experiencing Corona Virus, being in isolation and having some free time has give me the opportunity to create work that I may never have done under normal circumstances. Being at home has also meant that I have had the chance to work with my sister which we may never have had the time to do, which has been an amazing gift. See the full series on @ho.n.or
Shae Myles
mukbang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5JeTHLF2Mo&feature=emb_title
This series was born out of the conflicting emotions experienced during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. By using her alter-ego Cherry Shakes, Shae aims to capture the dual personality associated with stereotypical clowns; split between being bringing joy and delight to those around them, while displaying a cavernous sense of sadness and pain. Cherry Shakes embodies this contrast while she mourns her life and passions pre-isolation.
Tom Richardson
Six Feet, Acrylic on Canvas, 16”x 16”, Palo Alto, California USA.
I became interested in odd, old amateur photos after one fell out of a book that I borrowed from the library. So I started looking for them on eBay, and found some. I was painting from them and then the pandemic came along, I noticed some of them could illustrate socially distancing, or staying safe in public. This was one of them, an otherwise ordinary beach scene with a guy in business clothes, including a pocket protector, standing in the middle of it, and nobody seemed to be doing anything with anybody else.
Denni Murray
Brain Drain, 2020
Submission statement: often, when we become assimilated to a state of loneliness, we become so accustomed to not talking to each other than when confronted with the rare opportunity to converse with another person, it is almost as if we have forgotten how. sometimes, all it takes is a simple hello.
sadness is something most of us struggle to talk about. even for those who are brave enough to share their thoughts and feelings on depression or mental illness, normal everyday sadness can still elude expression. and yet it is a feeling we all know.
Zoe Goodall
Just staying safe / Lady on my Wall / She doesnt bite really, 04/04/2020, UK
Submission statement: Leaving the constraints posed by studying Art at A-Level allowed the gain of stylistic freedom. This in turn has enabled adjustment and development regarding my approach to creating and producing work. I would describe my process as a form of organised chaos. Often spontaneous ramblings translated into characters and occasionally beginning with a list of some sort, containing ideas, comments or observations formed throughout that day or week. I wouldn’t say my work has one particular narrative, although some often connect through themes, this is for the most part not a conscious decision.
Regarding the materials I use, these tend to be either water-based markers or ink and a fine brush.
I often work at a small scale, as the challenge of working with such fine detail forces me to rely on intuition when producing work. However, working at such a scale can also be to my detriment, as this can often pose problems with that same detail being lost when enlarging my work.
Although quarantine has been a difficult time for many, I believe it has had a largely positive impact on the development of my work so far. With this said, I am not denying the challenge this time has been for not only myself but equally friends and family.
Spending this time working, dealing with the public as a key worker has opened my eyes to some of the more sinister faces that permeate within the area in which I live. Shedding light on addiction, prejudice and perversion, demonstrated through comments and actions made. When I find myself with a day away from work I often recount it's events through illustrations as well as submerging myself within the work of other creatives I admire.
This time has allowed me to express the events I have witnessed. At times channelling my feelings regarding such observations with the hopes of communicating the discomfort and/or highlighting the ridiculous nature of the observation. Often through exaggeration of features and narrative.
Maria Herzmaier
On My Balcony, Vienna, 16/04/2020
Statement: I was kind of forced to find new perspectives in order to stay sane in the never changing, static, seemingly dead environment I was in all day every day. Photography helped me to actualize that. Whenever I look through the camera lens everything seems sharper than reality. It allows me to get a different view on all the things that seem mundane and normal. So i took the limited space of my balcony, looked at it through the camera and found things i had never seen before.
Ellen Lachs
Face in the Sun, Face in the Sun, 28th May 2020, London.
Statement: This piece encapsulates the ways that the sun, and warm weather change moods and attitudes. With quarantine comes an unending hum of monotony. However, when the sun comes out, this shifts. Sun rays reveal a lot more colour and depth in a persons’ face that are missed under the scrutiny of different types of light. I had hoped that this piece, and its moment of brightness, would defy the banality of living in lockdown. Quarantine has impacted my creative process in that it has given me the time and space to actually paint again. When I started university, I stopped painting because I did not have the physical space to do so. It has been well over a year since I took the time to build on and actively improve my technique. My abilities had severely plateaued. During quarantine I have been able to resume teaching myself how to paint, dedicating time to exploring other artwork and influential artists.
Chiara Maurino
Hope Serum, 14.06.2020, london - graphics Marcella Guarino
Statement: My piece aims to satirize the massive hype surrounding skincare that has grown momentum throughout recent years. Specifically targeted to appeal to a very young audience of teenage girls, the marketing that surrounds skincare products feels to me particularly insidious. Watching my 12 year old sister scroll through social media streams, I was stunned by the language used to advertise skincare products, which is overly spiritual in its focus on 'healing' and makes use of pastel colours and negative space to evoke imagery associated to heaven. It's almost as though, in our modern and often lonely world, skincare has become the adolescent girl's religion. It suddenly struck me that at a time such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where isolation and hours spent on social media are at a global peak, it's no wonder that the skincare industry is booming. By adopting the design, imagery and copy writing used by skincare brands to market my very own 'Hope Serum', I hope to expose the problematic way in which the beauty industry uses spiritual language to capitalise on the world's growing need for hope and healing.
Stella Trip
Lockdown Series, Watercolour and ink on paper 25 cm Square, April - June 2020, Exeter Devon. (25 IMAGES)
Statement: At the start of lockdown I felt very lucky to have my studio in my house, so I could carry on working “as normal”. However after working on a few canvases, I settled in to making small works on paper, with watercolours and pen and ink. Without realising it, I think I struggled to work freely in a locked down world. When I first went to America, many years ago, the novelty and freedom of the situation allowed my work to expand in all directions – size, materials, ideas... In the strange situation we find ourselves in now, more restrictive size and media intuitively feel more fitting.
Otto Bridgham
Man With Pacifico, April 10 2020, Barcelona.
Statement: Bathroom drinking - if you know, you know.
Kitty Handley
The Love Song of T.S. Eliot, Carlisle Cubmria UK
“Inspired by the poem “The Love Song Of J. Alfred. Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. The short film centres around three people during one day of lockdown. Playing ode to the Stream Of Consciousness rhythm to Eliots’ poem, the film follows the three characters without intention, simply observing the beauty of the monotonous everyday.”
Charlie Speck, A1
Statement: Being in the same space and experiencing the same things most days means we don’t have the ability to gain new inspiration from being out with access to a wider pool of experience. So, what I’ve been doing is based a lot more on memories of past experience. Some of these being far in the past means that clear images are inaccessible and all I can capture is the feel of certain landscapes with form and colour. Everything is harder to grasp concretely. Likewise, this mirrors the weird state that lockdown has put us in where all the days are blurring into one- nothing seems definitive. If I was to compare general experience right now with anything, it would be that moment when you just wake up, open you eyes and everything is blurry as you’re trying to work out what’s going on and where you are.
Desmond Reed
Coronavirus Comics, Boston Massachusetts, USA
Artist Statement:
When I first heard about the Coronavirus, I didn't think much of it. Preoccupied with every other aspect of my life, I chose to believe that it would just go away... that it was just another news story. Plus, there weren't even any cases in America, right? Perhaps it is because I live in Boston, but it was when the Red Sox cancelled spring training that I began to get worried… Still, I had so many other things on which to focus my attention - a full-time job, social obligations, and a pesky little comic book featuring five new characters that I'd been trying to figure out for a few months. Then, everything stopped. It was early March when the Coronavirus was officially a pandemic, a state of emergency was declared in Massachusetts, and businesses were closed indefinitely. Everyone was told to stay in their homes. That first week was the hardest. Life had just changed so quickly. I felt scared, confused, and completely alone. I even began having nightmares. After a few days of not knowing where to put this anxious energy, I decided to work out some of my feelings through a comic. Using the same characters I had before the quarantine, it only took a few hours to write, sketch and ink a full two-page comic. Completing that first comic was so therapeutic that I decided to chase the feeling and create one Coronavirus comic a day. Whether it was being on a schedule, the feeling of accomplishment, or watching my cartoon characters go through the same thing I was going through, creating this comic helped me so much. I don't know what I would have done without it. The comics range from extremely silly to heartbreaking, as my main directive was to be honest about what I was feeling during each given day. I see this comic as my personal time capsule for the quarantine. I genuinely hope reading this comic book helps others as much as it helped me to write it. While I'm happy about my productivity and creativity during this time, it doesn't feel right or respectful to say anything positive about it. I obviously wish this wasn't happening. The Coronavirus has resulted in so much death and loss... I just feel so thankful and lucky that my loved ones and I have (so far) been safe.
Wolfgang Gmoser
Beach - bog - marsh - train, Vancouver
Statement: These films were created years after I was in film school using leftover footage from another old project. It was an exercise in revitalizing and reimagining old scraps of material into short pieces.
Thanks so much to Ashley Sugimoto and Aerlan Barrett for helping with the creation of the pieces!
And to LINDSAY! AND DGSYR!!!!!
Jody Mulvey
A Degree Show for Ants, May 2020, Scotland
statement: "The hierarchical structuring of institutional spaces within the arts and the rituals visitors are required to enact within them, provide the stimulus for my work. I explore this by utilising colour, shape and materiality as a medium to subvert the seriousness of institutional spaces and playfully reconstruct them through my interventions. Drawing, collage and the making of maquettes provide the preliminary means of envisaging potential encounters between visitors, my artwork and the environment in which they are situated. I view these modes of exploration as an artistic playground where I am able to mishmash and meld components together to construct a composition. Drawing is like writing to me due to the fluid and impulsive nature of the mark-making. It is like my subconscious rambling and scrolling of the mind and how I make sense of spatial sensations and the relationship between forms in two-dimensional surfaces; preliminary processes of two-dimensional enquiry are a vital prelude to collaging within the three-dimensional realm. Due to my degree show being cancelled, I have been unable to fully conceive an installation within a space like I had intended. I have, however, found great joy in immersing myself in constructing models to envisage the interaction between my work and spaces it could inhabit. Furthermore, my practice of drawing and collaging has provided vital solace amongst the current overwhelming world."
Jennifer Smith
Netherlands
In retrospect my work has shifted through 3 stages during the corona virus pandemic.
The image of a single naked female figure has dominated my work for the majority of my practice. Before the corona virus crisis began my work had shifted and was developing into multiple figures, a statement contemplating on the rise of feminism and the female gaze.
However, as the corona virus hit this seemed futile to me and not a true representation of what was happening in the world. During this time I created Stage 1, larger works on canvas of figures alone separated by walls. It seems the social distancing rules emphasis the interconnected network of relationships that give meaning and purpose. Figures are shown together as a representation of connectedness despite the situation.
Fortunately I have access to my studio, however available time became increasingly limited. My husband was working from home and I was taking care of our 2 young children. I now work 1 day of the weekend. I started to make work on smaller pieces of paper. Stage 2, started as an expression of the emotions and stress that came to me due to the virus spreading and the loss of a family member who died after contracting the virus. During normal times my work is mostly on larger canvas pieces. The smaller scale of the paper sped up my pace and allowed me to experiment with different materials. It seems to come natural in an emotional state to express freely and break though habits.
The result is a series of smaller work on paper of the upside down world we are living in today.
My painting, I forgot what I was doing and where I was going, became a turning point for me that brought me back to my practice and into Stage 3, the current stage I am in. I felt it was time to remove myself from the tragedy and instead explore further the complex relationship of the female nude and the question of a female gaze. I am also moving forward with the interconnectedness and relationships of multiple figures while continuing to experiment with movement and texture of paint and a more abstract representation.
Milo Clare
Here Kitty Kitty
Alex Skyrme
'I am currently studying at the University of the Arts London as an illustration student, and during quarantine, I have found a new sense of freedom to draw. Without the distraction of work or the noise of the outside world, I have found a space of my own to create illustrations to uplift and inspire others in this unnerving time. I like to find humour and sarcasm in my everyday life, and inject them into my drawings. Laughter is the best medicine! As I start online art classes now, I have promised myself to continue drawing about quarantine, and inspiring others to do so too.'