Covid-19 Art Exhibition
Day 4 Artists
Sabine Kaner - www.sabinekaner.com @sabinemake
The first piece of work I would like to present
is called Reunion. I made this work as a reminder to myself that, although I
deeply missed my family, we would one day be reunited. It was particularly
poignant as my daughter had just been diagnosed with cancer. She had recently
moved to Dublin, so as Ireland closed its borders and our flights were
cancelled I knew it would be a long time until I saw her again. She went
through all the treatment alone without her family by her side. At times this
was very painful to experience at a distance. The meditative stitching of the
work helped me to cope with the helplessness I felt.
‘Reunion’
During lockdown there were other important
issues like the BLM protests that I felt I had to engage with. The BAME
community have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 virus. As a
mixed race person and one of the Windrush descendants I felt compelled to share
some of my personal journey on social media. I created an image by reusing an
original piece of work called reunion, and created a new photo collage which represented the abstract representation of the
unity of all of us.
'Unity’
In this piece of work I wanted to highlight the
way the government and other organisations felt it necessary to close parks,
and a lot of the countryside was closed off for visitors. It made me feel so
sad as I saw images of families living in flats and small spaces and not having
access to any outside space, being trapped inside with small children. As the
days grew longer and the weather warmer the need for some interaction with the
natural world became more urgent!
'All green Spaces closed’
Julia Keenan - @juliakeenan
This work is about empathy, it was created just
before the first 'lock-down'. The physical work consists of a collaged
arrangement of sculptures printed onto canvas. The form is suggestive of anatomy
and makes me think of birth, life and death. Elements of the natural world have
been introduced to highlight the interconnectivity of everything on our planet.
Empathy on Grey
Hansa khadim - www.facebook.com/hansa.khadim1
I am a visual artist just emerging. A Salford
University graduate (2006) I have been a carer, professionally as well as in my
personal life,for more than 2 decades. My exhibition was cancelled due to the
pandemic. This is what prompted me to create love and hope painting. It was the
loss of life, and how saddened we all were. My only way to give hope was my oil
painting, love and hope is about how we're all connected. Carers and NHS
workers have there own heart, single parents have there own,
Internet connections have there own heart, the final heart is a day in my own
life looking after my children. I have leaves to connect all these people.
Encased in a bigger heart. Which is protected by hearts and leafs encased in bubbles
as in the need to protect the idea of love and hope. It's crucial as a society
that art paves and lights the way in times of despair.
Love and hope
Li An Lee - lianlee.co.uk
On my lap is my daughter she has just finished
screaming and has collapsed on me. I didn’t know what to do. My mind was
boggled the screaming had affected me, the headphones helped a bit. All I knew
was I wasn’t leaving her through whatever this emotional melt-down was. Likely
I had butter on her toast had vanished and I couldn’t bring it back. But her
emotions were real. I captured this moment because I know I feel alone and I
want to remind other parents that they are not.
Meal times became a very important ritual not
just because they reminded us of normality, but because having meals together
consistently was a lost dream. This image is from a Lockdown Table series.
There was something very beautiful about these moments. This family gathering
around a meal was a weekend special and now it was every day. The way we live
feels more like how life was meant to be. For our family It has been the most
treasured moment. I hope it continues.
Modern lack
As lockdown started to ease we started to
venture out. Still wanting to stay away from people we found the swimming pool
carpark our place of excitement. Dad needed the familiar manmade concrete
buildings, recalling London. The proof that we weren’t the only people on the
planet. The empty carpark became our playground, teaching the kids to cycle and
enjoying the space and evening summer sun.
Lidia Lidia - lidialidia.com/works @justlidialidia
'The Waiting Room' is a series of 20
photographs, that I have realised with my collaborator Mr. SlimBones during the
lockdown in May and June 2020.
I spent the first 5 weeks of the COVID-19
lockdown reading news obsessively. I passed from indignation, to anger, to
frustration and deep confusion. The narrative that has been sold to us is that
no one could forecast this pandemic arriving. But it doesn't take a lot of
commitment to discover that there have been warnings from the scientific
community since 2008 about how emerging infectious illnesses were increasing
every year.Or even that Bill Gates gave a TED talk in 2015
on how no country was ready to cope with a pandemic that was clearly
approaching. He gave models about how devastating it was going to be for the
global economy to be so unprepared... Nevertheless the majority of people are not
interested in seeing uncomfortable realities. The whole period of the lock down has been an
increasing of confusion, hysteria and entertainment... an insane circus where
people tried to keep busy doing everything and the opposite of everything. I am still not sure what is the truth behind the
Covid-19 apocalypse, but I am sure that one day, somewhere and somehow, this
truth will emerge. It is just a matter of waiting... But I am sure of one thing: during the Covid-19 lockdown period, we have seen nature flourishing and
recovering at an unexpected speed. Nevertheless the worldwide economy is asking
just one thing... to go back to business as usual. Is it worth it? Is that what we want?
The Waiting Room
Cate Lis - @catelis5460
I did a series of 12 paintings during pandemic
about my feelings, and my experiences during lockdown
Pandemic time
Caroline Mawer - www.carolinemawer.com
I was shielded, and as part of diverting me from
the infodemic and all the fake news, I made art: in the only place I was
allowed to be - my front room - with the only material I had - recycled
packaging. My installation is too large to show all of it in one photograph.
Please take note of the coffin - after an old friend of mine died and his
funeral was live-streamed, it was like his coffin was in my front room. My
grief kept me ‘tripping over’ his coffin.
Sitting in my installation
It was very difficult not being allowed outside
at all. So I constructed a paper lemon tree to show some of the natural world -
even if it was far far away at the end of a perspective tunnel. I went hungry when I couldn’t get any food and
in this photo you can also see the more-or-less socially distanced supermarket
queue I could - ironically - see out of my windows. So near yet so far!
Looking out at the world
The government repeatedly said that deaths were
‘only’ in the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. That’s me, I
thought!! I’ve got pre-existing conditions – so apparently my death doesn’t
really count. The naked ‘woman’ here underlines that, though I have multiple
conditions, I am also a human being and a woman. The so-called shielding felt like imprisonment.
So you can also see me in my orange prison suit dreaming of fresh food. Which I
couldn’t get! Plus my version of the government pronouncements: I stayed home;
the NHS wasn’t protected; and lives were lost.
Looking out at the world
JL Maxcy - www.jlmaxcy.com
While daydreaming of different pasts and hoping
for auspicious futures, I stumbled upon a way to escape our present. I began to
see time as a wave and like an accordion, I compressed that wave until the
crests and troughs were superimposed. I then used the timeless art of painting
to document this temporal merger.
The Duchess of Portsmouth after Mignard
Samantha McKee
Here are some thoughts on C19 and
‘HAVING TO REFRAIN’ from our usual conduct. Like many people during lockdown I read more. This text was inspired by
confessional poets and H.G. Wells. My thoughts were centred around how
people used to being busy and not prone to much deep thought were effected by
isolation. To some it is a desirable state with release from ‘habitual
mind-sets’. For others the oppressiveness of this world increased,
bringing forth an undercurrent of fear.
HAVING TO REFRAIN
These are drawings with iridescent
wax photographed under coloured lights. Retreating
Underground to Safety. The images are dreamy, alternative spaces to inhabit in the mind during the
epidemic. There was a yearning for escape from reality when for a time
outdoor visits couldn’t happen and the world was watched from afar – ‘the
sunset was noticed but abandoned’.
PURPLE COVID SHELTER LIFE BEYOND THE DOORSTEP WAS A COVID HAZE
Smriti Mehra and Matt Lee - www.smritimehra.com www.matt-lee.com @smriti_mehra @mattrdlee
Forced to stay indoors in their one-bedroom
apartment in London, this photo series explores the physical, virtual, mental
and emotional confines of the strange instance created by the pandemic. Through
the objects in their home the artists imply routine, repetition, anxiety,
exhaustion, domesticity, technology, the inescapable political climate and the
experience of time.
Here Only
Jasmine Mills - www.jasminemills.co.uk
My paintings are loosely based on reacting to
places that I feel a connection with. Through lockdown, I was spending almost
all of my time exploring the reservoir behind where I live. It's otherworldly,
beautiful, and overgrown. Somewhere you can get lost, hide in between trees,
get your trainers stuck in a muddy puddle. It may be a cliche but spending time
in the outdoors made me feel whole and authentic and true to myself. Since I
have been concentrating on representing this romance through painting, trying
to recreate the feeling of this time.
Diana (The Huntress)
Joanna Myles - www.jmmyles.com
During the lock-down earlier this year I was
very grateful for our allotment.
With 3 children and my partner at home it
offered me a welcome space, somewhere I could disconnect with the smallness
created by the lock-down and quite frankly I could listen to my podcasts in
peace whilst pottering around growing things. Our Town Council, in an effort to protect us
allotment tenants started to place a number of signs and notices on the notice
boards and on the entrance gates. This amused me somewhat, and especially as
nature had other plans (as does the virus). The signs became sun-faded and
watermarked and so I decided to capture the moments in a series of water-colour
paintings.
Summer of C_19
Japo Okworobu - arts.jin
The artist paints thought-provoking portraits
that explore the discovery and realisation of different moments, situations and
times. She wants to communicate those positive and even negative human emotions
through her artwork as each piece is very personal to the conceptual artist. This artwork reflects the current times that we
are all experiencing. ‘Forced happiness’ is one of the explored emotions that
the artist feels that others can directly or indirectly relate to. With the
painted gesture, 'Forced happiness' shows that as a collective irrespective of
gender, race, age or religious beliefs- society pushes us to present a positive
face.
The social implications of lock-down and wearing
a mask is vividly shown in this artwork and its title. In addition, the
complete darkness of the edges is contrasted with the bright colours used for
the face- which resembles a mask.
Forced Happiness
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