A Care Compendium: Chapter Five

Everything that calms me is liquid explores my relationship between my disability, class and arts practice.

Over the past two years I’ve explored the impact a person’s environment has on their mental health. I explored city, rural and communal living but at no point did I think about complete isolation.

When lockdown was announced I realised that’s what I was facing. In some ways as a disabled person I was equipped having experienced periods of isolation during episodes of depression. However this felt different.

And so I decided I needed to find something I could do to soothe my mind and connect to the world in my own wee way. Blowing giant bubbles from my balcony was my solution.

Who knows what a man and a sock can do in isolation. We embark on a story about a lonely man who fines confinement with his single gym sock companion as they try to not get annoyed by each other's company.

This piece was created within isolation and contains words that may offend.

Before we went into isolation, I was at the beginnings of making a circus show. Without a tight-wire or wheel of death in sight it was a challenge to put together circus in confinement. I took advantage of the sun and to the passersby disbelief spent a few afternoons head-standing on the dirt and walking on champagne bottles in my front yard. And when it rained, turned to the bathroom for the new tricks. Circus gathers folks, trying not to make a scene sailing down the street and through the park backwards and upside down on my acrobatic bike.

Now restrictions are lifting I am continuing the research on a new circus show with all my props, but have been offered a 3x3m stage so the work made in confinement will continue.

Recent large-scale works have increasingly relied on people (or to be specific, the activities a group of people might undertake) to complete them. Often printed (and covering entire spaces) they form a kind of backdrop or ‘wallpaper’ to prompt, encourage or make us think about our behaviour in those spaces; ’social pattern’s’ if you like. During isolation I’ve been wondering how works like this can still remain social at a time when social activity ground to a halt.

‘HI’ reworks concrete shapes from an archetypal Dutch train station; Amsterdam Sloterdijk (a station I became obsessed with whilst on a residency in Holland last year). Digitally drawn, scaled-down and simplified, the spinning silhouettes begin to resemble typography intermittently spelling out friendly greetings. Designed to be viewed in your hand on a smartphone and/or be set as a digital wallpaper; one that continuously, incessantly loops, the semi-figurative pattern attracts attention, a rotating reminder of care recurring in the background.

Lockdown with Joyce, Rolo an a phone camera, but then knitting together footage to make montages, helps me process challenging situations and transform into a loose diary to look back on.

This project has allowed me to take time to gain new skills. It's allowed me to try things, I’ve not attempted before. It’s been a great learning process that I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Creating this video allowed me to express myself and share how I personally use my art to care for my own mental health. It took the piece of art I had created and gave me a way to express what the piece meant to me personally and allowed me to discuss my processes. The presentation is followed by a Q&A from the people who attended and ends with a body scan meditation.

“It may not seem like it but underneath the mask we were still smiling”.

(Emma Sterba, Staff Nurse, Intensive Care Unit, UK)

Care, an e-photobook was devised and produced during lockdown in the UK, which began on the 23 March 2020. It explores via selfies what ‘care’ looks like worldwide for healthcare professionals during the pandemic.

Care also combines archival and computer generated imagery in documenting the NHS health and social care workers who are believed to have died from COVID-19.

You can download the 1st edition of Care below, check out the 2nd edition of Care (finished version) which can also be download at:

https://digitintherib.viewbook.com/care

Please note that this work contains content relating to death and COVID-19.

This poem was inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” monologue and based on community contributions on the theme of “Care” from the people of Knowsley.