A Pandemic Portrait, 2021

A Pandemic Portrait is an exploration of the experience of lockdown expressed through three main themes that have taken on increased significance to me during the course of the pandemic; Friends and Family, Nature and the Home. Each set of photographs documents an investigation of these themes through the use of clay, and in turn also aims to highlight the materiality of clay itself and the different ways it can be used; to make, to grow and to build. The first image charts the results of a postal project where participants were sent a 100g ball of clay with an invitation to 'make something' and send back their creations through the post. The second image highlights clay's role as a growing medium in and of itself, rather than merely as a container for soil, and the third aims to illustrate the changing nature and duality of our relationship with the home throughout the course of the pandemic. A model of a house constructed using a mixture of water, straw and clay and applied to a wire frame in a technique mirroring traditional wattle and daub construction, is left to breakdown over time. Collectively, the images seek to explore ideas of connection, collaboration, isolation, rewilding and the nature of time during a unique moment in social history.