Quarantine Art Challenges
From the desk of Vitasta Raina
For the most part, the Coronavirus lock-down has been tough. We got sent home from work on the 17th of March, and have been working from home ever since. When I say these things, I understand that I am speaking from a position of privilege. I am living and working from inside the comfort of my house, and although I am forced into quarantine, living alone and separated from my family and friends, I am constantly aware of the struggles so many of my countrymen are facing in these times. Migrant labour, dishoused and unable to secure their daily meals, and so many living inside appalling and frightful circumstances in slums and kutchi bastis. The physical and mental trauma and anguish caused by the lock-down to so many cannot be minimalised and trivialized. But having said that, from my personal spacio-temporal pocket, I can too feel the effects of the lock-down slowly chipping away and eroding the fabric of my psyche and exterior front of calm.
The fact of the matter is that the lock-down has taken a toll on me, on the way I conduct my life and has in a small measure added a bit of melancholic grief into my days. I long for days when I could be sitting with my family at my parent's house in my hometown, or with my friends in my favourite coffee shop. But yet, I realise that our happiness is sometimes bound within ourselves, in thoughts and actions and the way we choose to conduct our lives, especially when there is no one watching.
Anyway, as I move between dimensions, hovering on the kitchen counter by day and leaning across my balcony at night to watch the drifting lights cast shadows on the buildings and the empty roads of this city that I love, I look for small sequences to bring in a bit of happiness in my own tiny corner of the universe. About a month ago, the Paul Getty Museum started an online art challenge, inviting people to recreate works of art using household objects, and I decided to participate, and in doing so, I found a bit of joy. These are the results of my artful attempts. ☺️
1. Nina Costford: Ways to wear a beret (2020)
For the most part, the Coronavirus lock-down has been tough. We got sent home from work on the 17th of March, and have been working from home ever since. When I say these things, I understand that I am speaking from a position of privilege. I am living and working from inside the comfort of my house, and although I am forced into quarantine, living alone and separated from my family and friends, I am constantly aware of the struggles so many of my countrymen are facing in these times. Migrant labour, dishoused and unable to secure their daily meals, and so many living inside appalling and frightful circumstances in slums and kutchi bastis. The physical and mental trauma and anguish caused by the lock-down to so many cannot be minimalised and trivialized. But having said that, from my personal spacio-temporal pocket, I can too feel the effects of the lock-down slowly chipping away and eroding the fabric of my psyche and exterior front of calm.
The fact of the matter is that the lock-down has taken a toll on me, on the way I conduct my life and has in a small measure added a bit of melancholic grief into my days. I long for days when I could be sitting with my family at my parent's house in my hometown, or with my friends in my favourite coffee shop. But yet, I realise that our happiness is sometimes bound within ourselves, in thoughts and actions and the way we choose to conduct our lives, especially when there is no one watching.
Anyway, as I move between dimensions, hovering on the kitchen counter by day and leaning across my balcony at night to watch the drifting lights cast shadows on the buildings and the empty roads of this city that I love, I look for small sequences to bring in a bit of happiness in my own tiny corner of the universe. About a month ago, the Paul Getty Museum started an online art challenge, inviting people to recreate works of art using household objects, and I decided to participate, and in doing so, I found a bit of joy. These are the results of my artful attempts. ☺️
1. Nina Costford: Ways to wear a beret (2020)
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| Recreated (right) obviously 🙄 |
2. LeWitt: All ifs ands or buts connected by green lines (1973)
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| Recreated (right) by connecting all "The"s on the first page of my novella Asteroid Vanvas. |
3. Monet: Woman with a Parasol, facing left
Artwork (1886)
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| Recreated (Right) |
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Peace. Bombay Love.
See you on the other side of the quarantine.
Stay Safe!
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