How Lockdown Transformed The Art We Produce
Amidst the chaos and devastating loss of the past year, our perceptions, our ways of working and the art we produce have been transformed, opening up new, creative opportunities.
Will Hazell is an artist who has found himself at the centre of these changes. Early on in 2020 he produced the ingenious “Londoners Under Lockdown” which was featured by Vice before being showcased in Short of the Week.
Now, he’s returning to our series with a beautiful, pensive and uplifting film focused on his housemate and fellow innovative artist, Fran.
Like the rest of the country I was confined to my home, in my case a 6-bedroom shared house in South London. My flatmate Fran could no longer access her painting studio, so she turned our garden into her studio. It was fascinating to see Fran's large, visceral paintings come to life. They were so vibrant and created a special energy in the garden. In a time where we had no visual stimuli they gave us something to look at and talk about.
I was seeing a lot of other painters on Instagram create work that was responding to the pandemic, so when the first lockdown ended I couldn’t wait to include some of them in my film.
XU Yang creates sumptuous paintings that explore what she thought was ‘exotic’ as a child - luxurious depictions of French Rococo. With galleries being closed, she would walk around her local park to get her work seen. And people would look! Not only are the paintings beautiful but she would be in full outfit - think Mary Antoinette on acid.
BlkBrd Creative, who are made up of artists Deanio X, Tasnim Mahdy, Seen K26 and more - were painting street murals, large portraits of key workers on boarded up pubs and shut down venues. They made these as messages of support for the people that were on the front line and risking their lives for the greater good.
Creativity is such a beautiful and unifying force and this has really become clear during the pandemic. It’s been heartbreaking to see the arts industries suffer at the hands of our government and Brexit seems to be making these matters worse. It is time for the creative industry to be seen for it’s true worth, for our economic, social and mental well-being.
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