Day 4

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.

Cognitive Dissonance

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.

The beginning of freedom

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

Day 3

Covid-19 Art Exhibition

Day 3 Artists

Rhian Louise Evans

Anonymous                                                                       Naming

Fred Fabre - www.drawlogia.com

Santa Claus in A&E receiving oxygen with a medical team in the background while a middle aged Tinker Bell is taking over his job.

Covid Santa

Tracy Ferriss - www.earthyhealthy.com

Lockdown was a misery but gardening was my salvation

Lockdown

Angela Fox 

I chose the medium of watercolour as it has a fragile quality. I wanted it to portray my husband dissolving in front of my eyes! The frustration of not being able to get the correct medical help and advice. Meanwhile he fades.

Dissolving

Finally I get past the receptionist!

1 doctor calls.

15 antibiotics.

1 husband ceases to dissolve and begins to resolve.

8 days of suffering ends.

He breathes easily again.

Resolving

Vardit Goldner - www.saatchiart.com/VarditGoldner

Lloyd tries to imitate human beings in order to feel protected. Or at least, this is what, as being human, we assume.

I’m Protected

Nicola Grellier - www.nicolagrellier.co.uk    @nick_grellier 

Facetime 322                                               Space Invader 325

Staying Alert 346

Liz Griffiths - @lizgriffiths423

I’m lucky to live very near a couple of parks, and walking in them when everything was closed inspired this work.

I ❤️ The Park

Stephen Hennessy -  www.stephen-hennessy.com  @hennessy_stephen

My work centres on the extraordinary nature of the ordinary everyday. The things that we may give very little time to are for me a cause of meditation and celebration, these kinds of moments have gained more value with the current Covid crisis. We now have more time on our hands to observe and contemplate our lives and the things immediately surrounding us. When all the distractions are gone - the job to go to, the restaurant to eat in, the pub to drink and socialise in you’re left only to meditate with the objects, the streets and the people around you. I view this latest body of work as a series of meditations - a moment in time contemplated and recorded for what it is.

Supermarket Sweep

Sarah Hinds - sarahhinds.wordpress.com soundcloud.com/sarah-hinds-4

These words are taken from the lyrics of a song I wrote in response to an increasing feeling of sadness or sorrow which I experienced when using video call as a way of communicating socially and at work (I've not seen my colleagues for over 7 months). It was a feeling which seemed to be saying something about the incremental losses we are experiencing around presence, human connection and intimacy during the pandemic. It was about something more than 'Zoom fatigue', something about our relationship with our bodies and our humanness.
The full song can be found on my Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/sarah-hinds-4

Melanie Honebone - melaniehonebone.wordpress.com

I wore one long before. Now everyone wears one nothing seems real.

Mask

I must not fear.

Fear is the Mindkiller

The face we wear is not always the face we believe we are wearing.

About Face

Gareth Hughes - www.garethhughesart.com

At the height of the first wave of the Covid pandemic, I painted Diane (oils on canvas). Diane still works as a senior charge nurse in a respiratory ward that became a Covid ward, based at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. I aimed to capture the mood and exhaustion of Diane between unrelenting shifts. At the time of painting, the work of the NHS and other keyworkers was relatively overlooked.

Diane

Rebecca Ivatts - www.rebeccaivatts.com     @Rebeccaivatts

It was inspired by that weird world-turned upside-down sense of almost hibernatory lethargy during lockdown. I also have a fixation with bats!

Wings Clipped

Shahina Jaffer - www.art247.co.uk

Howling for Health is symbolic of the current climate, when nature takes over and makes a howl for health and healing under a full moon. I wanted to show solidarity with global health workers and that's why I used the health symbol.

Howling for Health 2020

Louisa Pankhurst Johnson - www.louisajohnsonvisualpoet.com/

The solution to pollution is dilution.

To sustain an unhinged environment to happily live in, only occurs with use of personal protection, to eliminate hazards via the nervous system by technology.
Biohacking, shielding & grounding eliminate electromagnetic power through the earth’s natural resources, enabling detoxification of the nervous system.

Genesis 2:7

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Job 27:3

For as long as life is in me,
And the breath of God is in my nostrils.

War On Oxygen 

Helen Jones - www.helenjonesartist.com  @helen_jonesart

This photograph is part of an ongoing series I am working on in order to capture the natural light in various ways around my home. About two months before lockdown, I moved to new accommodation, which was part of a fresh start for me, with exciting possibilities and friendships. I had no idea at this point just how much time I would be spending in this new environment. Over this relatively short period of time, the house has become my home. Staying at home throughout the day means I can explore the light patterns in different rooms and capture their movement through film and photography. I enjoy watching the light become stronger in certain areas, and then fade away to nothing. Through this process I am documenting the time passing each day, and I am capturing a disappearing moment, which is never quite the same when revisited the next day.

Escape