Pandemic 2020 The Year of the Rat in the Chinese Calendar
The year of 2020 is the one that no one will forget for all the wrong reasons.
It is the year that has taken us by the shoulders and given us a shake. The silent enemy that you can’t see, taste or smell has hit rich and poor young alike as well as old, frail and not so frail, but the amazingly is that some very old people who might not been expected to recover have done so. We have not witnessed anything quite like this in 100 years . It has effectively closed the world down as we know it and put us all into quarantine other than the health workers and keyworkers who include the delivery drivers, supermarket workers, posties, dustbin men, people who have kept our country running . The real heroes of this dreadful situation .It has pushed some people to the edge and beyond, those with mental health issues that were not realised. It has placed people in death not being able to say goodbye to their loved ones and then families not being able to have closure through funerals .It has been cruel beyond what we have experienced previously maybe since war time. Families split apart, grandparents not able to see their families, new life arrived, but only to be viewed behind a glass window.
Children and students are now having lessons online although this is not working for all as some have no access to technology and the internet. A survey in the last week suggested that 2/3rds of children were not doing lessons at all. Dependent on the parents, some not able to cope with life as it is let alone tutor their children.
The lockdown started on the 23rd March 2020 with people confined to homes, any but essential business closed social distancing of a minimum of 6 apart when waiting in queues to go shopping. It inevitably it brought panic buying with shop shelves emptied of all essential items from loo roll to pasta hand gels and anti bac products to rice, tinned goods the shelves were emptied at a rate I have never seen before, not even at Christmas or Bank Holidays when the public go mad shopping. The food shops had a boom with an absolutely massive increase in sales. In the wake of this it left health workers old people with nothing left on the shelve to buy and the selfishness of the public was called out with supermarkets reserving certain time slots for the NHS, care workers , for the elderly to be able to shop and know there would be food on the shelves for them.
I know that in Australia early morning shopping has been reserved for the elderly and people with a health card which means that they have special needs.
People with known health risk with i.e.:- very low immune systems, who have received chemotherapy for cancer , diabetes , heart problems received a letter form the Health authorities telling them not to go at all for 12 weeks . Whilst everyone else is allowed to go out for shopping and for up to an hour a day to exercise , dog walk.
With nearly all businesses shut, work has had to go online for business workers too, with many working remotely from their homes. It makes you wonder if things will ever be the same again, will the public want to re-join the rat race of driving to work, catching the train, the tube for some this might have been a blessing is disguise. For some this is a nightmare and they have fallen through all the safety nets that have been set up to make sure that they have money in their pockets. We are going to be in recession worldwide for some time to come and personally, I would hope that perhaps we can bring more manufacturing back home and not be so reliant on China, where all this started in Wuhan Laboratory
The first few weeks of lockdown people were observing the rules but as of the 10th May I have noticed that there is more traffic and people around and when the weather has been good you can understand people wanting to be out. I can image for people living in a cramped flat with a couple of children under 5 years old and no garden it has been and still is a nightmare situation, or for someone in an abusive relationship it must be very difficult.
Some countries seemed to have coped better than the Uk, but I suppose we also have to accept that this is a very densely packed island and people live close to each other in the big cities, we by in large have been very fortunate in the South West of England
The paradox of this situation is ,that had this World pandemic not raised its ugly head in the last couple of months , then I would not be making my exhibition about it. It is very far from what my original idea , but with such a huge worldwide catastrophe ,I would have been silly ignore what is going around me as I would never expect to see the like of this again in my lifetime.
My new work has come about from seeing flowers placed into ice this was coupled with me making frozen heart which I was intending to use for water splashes experiments and suddenly seeing a new use for them .
It was from this idea that I made some ice cubes and once frozen placed the frozen hearts on the cubes topped up with water again and refroze. When this was complete, I set them up to photograph them. Because they are so slippery on a reflective surface it took much fiddling to keep the pieces still and being very quick as the ice would start to melt.
I decided to place one of the images on a photographic site that I use from time to time and got back some very good feedback from a professional photographer in the States, so positive that it was from this point that I decided what I needed to do for my exhibition piece
Laszlo Bencze
Just took a look at your portfolio. Your ice sculpture picture is in a much higher league from any of your other images. People often become dominated by trying to figure out their mistakes. Only very little can be gained from that exercise. But understanding your successes is very important and deeply rewarding. I urge you to try to fathom why this image is so wonderful. At the very least, you ought to explore doing more such ice sculptures. I recommend you study the art of Andy Goldsworthy. Also take a look at the photographs of Frederick Sommer.
There is great subtlety and intelligence in this image as well as much heart. You took the trouble to create the subject matter from scratch. The idea might well have been mawkish and sentimental, but you realized it in a most thoughtful and elegant manner with excellent craft both for the ice sculptures as well as the photograph.
There is one thing I have learned from this is that you cannot rush the process . You need to work out what it is you want to freeze. May sure you have room in the freezer to place the mould and then when frozen have the items ready to place onto the frozen block of ice. Everything has to be made up in layers and little by little you hopefully get the result that you are looking for.
The fact that this has hit world wide I have managed to get some photographs from people that I know around the globe to see how it has affected them. I have managed to get images from France ,Switzerland , Australia , Canada ,Italy , Menorca USA . This project could stretch to great lengths so it is knowing where to start and stop, so I will have to limit in to some degree. I have taken my own photographs in and around Paignton. I have done the best that I can as lockdown has made it difficult to go more than a few miles from where you live.
Canada
Saint John New Brunswick Canada sent by a family member
Normally a bustling city on the Eastern Seaboard of Canada , used to having regular visits from Cruise Liners they like everyone else are in Lockdown , and looks unlikely if they will get any liners arriving this year. Images of family children one doing intensive French classes and the others having some downtime. Empty playground all out bounds for the meantime.
Melbourne Australia
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On lockdown in Melbourne Australia the same hardships as everywhere else , families spending more time together, cooking seems to have been thing to bring people together and to discover new talents or brush up on skills they already had. Flinders railway station in the heart of Melbourne and the road running alongside it almost deserted, empty shelves as all the toilet rolls had been sold, they were like gold dust to find as people panic bought .Tennis courts and exercise machines out of bounds. My family learning to make fresh pasta when they weren't doing online schooling and my daughter and husband working from home too
Switzerland
We are all in this together, but not for some it would seem. private jet taking off from an airfield at Mollis Switzerland 21.5.20
My family like others have had to work from home, my youngest granddaughter who is at Art College spent 7 hours on working on the drawing above . They have had similar challenges in Switzerland to the rest of the world, vanishing toilet roll, however this seemed to sorted its self pretty quickly and food supplies have been pretty constant, although fresh vegetabls have become more expensive than previously.Any thing coming into the house, post, dry food suppliers has been quarantined, because they have had high numbers of people with Covid 19. In Zurich half the people in a Nursing home passed away because of the Virus.
Roads which would normally be busy deserted in Zurich itself not many people around in the Old part of the City. My family have been working from home my daughter in law is a teacher and has been working on Microsoft Teams to teach her pupils on video links. My son has been working remotely from home for the company he works for. One of my granddaughters has had to work on her Art for the end of her year long course at Art College. Everyone has been kept busy one way of another . They have also tried out many new recipes as they all like to cook.
France
I have a friend living in France, fortunately for them in the countryside, so isolating has not been too much of problem for them. They have friends who are countryside based also who have been working on a property they have bought .
Another friend has spent time doing upholstery work but also produced 50 facemasks which she handed over to the Marie in the village where they live
Lin has had to have a document which needs to carry with her if she needs to leave home, her daughter lives in a city in has put items on the balcony to quarantine
Sign on doors of supermarkets
Hand sanitizer at entrance
Sign on pasta shelf limiting purchases although stocks are not that low.
Butchery counter - you can just about see the plastic curtain hanging down over the servery.
Social distancing lines at tills!
Sign and Perspex sheet up at tills and all staff in masks and gloves.
Rivka’s meat delivery for the month. The butcher has vac packed everything for them (including the eggs!!) so they just have to disinfect rather than quarantine. They haven’t left their apartment since lockdown started and get everything delivered at huge cost.
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Italy
A few images sent to me by a student who lives in Milan. She said they had been confined to home for quite some time and once again food features. She also sent me some pictures of Genoa which I image had been taken very recently.
USA
Family in the USA in Montana and Washington State , all been at home for the duration with the kids .Mum is an Architect and is having to work from home and home school her children and not been finding it easy. Their cousin was finally able to attend her Graduation from High School in Butte Montana which had been a very close call to not having one. So a compromise as normally more family would have attended but better than no Graduation . Finally a Thermal Pool in Yellowstone Park which is closed to the public during the pandemic , but there is always one who thinks they are the exception to the rule and fell in the pool and was badly burnt ( In this country we would say scalded )
Menorca Ballearic Islands
A few images sent to be by a student in Menorca. She was saying the same as everyone else, had to stay and work from home, her sisters came home from Mainland Spain, and as always food is on everyone's minds. She worries how the island will recover , becasue they are very dependant on tourism there. She would like to be a translator and when she stayed with us two years ago her English was already excellent.
Hello Reminder
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Research and experimentation exploring and supporting your new work
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Research into your intended audience.
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Creation of new work or detailed description of intended outcome with visuals
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Evidence of planning and designing an exhibition
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Conduct an exhibition on your websites
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Evaluation with Audience feedback
Street Photographer Nico Goodden
https://www.nicholasgooddenphotography.co.uk/best-london-photography
A London based professional photographer who has international clients, whom it would seem in his spare time likes to do street photography .Looking at his images most of of the ones I have viewed have been done in black and white .Though he has some with more than one person in the frame there are many with just a solitary figure which to me adds to there isolation from all around them. I think the use of black and white also adds further to the isolation as you wonder if these people have any colour in their lives. Maybe its just the way he photographs or actively seeks out but there are two images here which are very stong and almost quite desolate in their appearance .
In his words below taken from his website he says
Street photography is my visual diary of daily life in London. I observe the city, Londoners and tourists around me and capture what others may just dismiss or not even notice. It can be beautiful, serendipitous, funny, sad and sometimes down right absurd but ALWAYS perfectly timed.
The last images maybe he wasn't thinking of being on his own during lockdown, he was certainly getting some looks from the people on the street
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This year with the pandemic world wide , it will bring our Exhibition to a much wide audience than we would have had normally. To try and shoehorn people out of their homes to come and spend a couple of hours at college to view what's on offer should be much easier this time.
With internet access they will be able to come and go as they please and if they want to return to the site when they have a bit of spare time and take further looks they can time that suits them, this is probably a win ,win situation for the exhibitors as well as the audience. I imagine that if your audience wants to participate or communicate with you that they will find this a much easier way, being able to send you a email l directly from the site.
I anticipate that my audience could be from upper junior school upwards as this is a problem which has affected the whole world, we have all been in a similar boat no matter where we live.
I will need to have system in place to be able to receive feed back from people who might look at my exhibits . It is necessary to know whether they like it or not and if so have they any favourite images and if so why they like them .It might also be interesting to know the demographics of age with for example 20-30 30-40years male/female and so on to see who is viewing and also as this is being shown through the internet where they are living in the world, to see whether if is indeed reaching a greater audience .Maybe it will be limited to the people that I send the details onto or put on my Facebook Pages in the hope that they might look.
Perhaps like anyone who is having an exhibition there are always seeds of doubt in your mind as to whether you work is good enough to be shown.
As my original idea was so totally different from what I have done now, as the pandemic put pay to that, I have had to rely on me making it up as I have gone along, although I had an idea I wasn't quite sure where it was going to take me and I have tried to give some narrative to it and not make it too disjointed. As many people are not yet back at work and possibly have time on their hands perhaps this might also boost interest in the event.
I will soon start to make a list of where I might place details of the exhibition and people that might be good to contact,. This will include the 3 or 4 different Facebook sites that I have, Twitter LinkedIn and possibly Instagram and then for those that don't use social media I will use email. This will possibly need several reminders and hope that they will come along and participate . At least if the worst comes to the worst you can rely on family and your tutors for some feedback !
I have had a quick look around the Art Pandemic website and came across and artist whose work looks interesting .
She is one of the guest artists and called Alana Tashjina. Alana says that she lived in China for 4 years and has taken some of the ideas for her art from the Communist Era comic books. She says that she tries to hide things inside her art and I think there is a definite Chinese feel to some of them. I a strange way it reminds me of a dragon the second one of a rough sea , I don't know why. Her work is very delicate detailed and also very intricate. These 2 paintings come from her Collective Unconscious Collection
Perhaps when I take another look the left hand side could be a virus, with tentacles spreading out. Must be lockdown getting to me.
I also looked at the work of another guest artist Photography Fiona Campbell. I nearly stopped there as I found her introduction on herself very heavy going, I think may be it could have been worded perhaps in simpler English instead it was full of what I tend to call Physco babble. Perhaps the more sophisticated and educated amongst us will understand it. However I made it to the end and took a look at her images . I was drawn to the set that she calls Homogenity 1. I think because they remind in part of ICM photography and the sort of art feel that this type of photography can produce
This last one is obviously and overlay of several images a look at the beach , makes you think of happier days when life was simpler than the present times and the colours used are muted but work well
marcelo guidoli
Here for no other reason that they ,made me smile which should be good enough . No other words necessary