Emma Davidson
Life in Lockdown
When the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK, I decided to record my impressions, thoughts and feelings, as well as the effects that coronavirus and the lockdown has had on my neighbourhood. Everywhere around Parson's Green, there are notices telling us what to do to keep our social distance; shops and cafes are closed; schools and churches are empty; the White Horse pub, usually a hub of activity, is silent. Parson's Green, the nearest green space to my home, has markings at its main entrance to warn people to keep two metre apart. I enclose some of the photos I have taken of my neighbourhood showing the ways it has changed under lockdown.
Everyone's world has changed so much in such a short time and the main feeling everywhere seems to be fear. I've tried to represent this feeling in my collage,'Waves of Fear' (collage: paper on paper, 70 cm x 50 cm) which shows the waves rolling across the paper to confront the viewer. I chose the yellow tones because fear is also linked to cowardice (when people are yellow-bellied for instance). Fear is something we've learnt to be ashamed of in our modern world. You are not meant to be fearful and, if you are, as the famous how-to book by Susan Jeffers tells us, we should "feel the fear and do it anyway" ('Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway' by Susan Jeffers, published by Ebury Publishing). In my collage, I also wanted to create some of the sense of movement I found in Mary Spears' collage, 'The Waves' (26" x 72" collage on canvas).
'Waves of Fear' by Emma Davidson (collage: paper o paper, 70cm x 50cm)
Nearly everyone is feeling fearful. I wanted to portray fear as something that hits us with great force. Most of us feel fearful if we are in a situation we cannot control and the pandemic has left everyone in that situation.
I've been reading the papers and watching the news much more since the pandemic began. I've become more concerned about how our country is run and what the government is doing to protect us during this pandemic. The lack of PPE and other equipment and the government's failure to track and trace the virus have led to some terrible repercussions, including unnecessary deaths. This is why I created my collage,'Repercussions' (collage: paper on paper, 70 cm x 50 cm), showing how quickly one thing can lead to another and spread into many different areas. In a pandemic, these repercussions can easily lead to situations of terror and death, like the spread of the virus in retirement homes. The NHS was sending old people back into their homes, after they had caught the virus in hospital, and so spreading the virus and infecting many others.
'Repercussions' by Emma Davidson (collage: paper on paper, 70cm x 50cm)
The terrible deaths that have occurred in great numbers are only one aspect of the pandemic. Related to these are all the mourners who have lost husbands, wives, children, friends, workmates and partners. In my image of the mourner ('The Mourner': a combination of pencil drawing and collage, paper on paper, 70 cm x 50 cm), I wanted to show the isolation that this also brings. No one experiences the death of a loved one in quite the same way and now people in mourning cannot be comforted by the hugs and close contact of their families. Many families are in separate households and cannot meet up. Funerals cannot be held in the usual way and close friends and relations often have to speak to their dying loved ones via social media, with no physical contact allowed. I wanted my mourner to be an isolated figure alone at the grave to depict a feeling of loneliness and grief.
'The Mourner' by Emma Davidson (a combination of drawing and collage, paper on paper, 70cm x 50cm)
I'm also aware how closely linked the whole world really is. The way the pandemic has moved from one country to another shows how closely we are all connected. It also shows how one danger can threaten us all. I found myself thinking of the virus as a sort of enemy alien which had come to infiltrate and attack our world. That's why I've portrayed the virus as a threatening alien in red and black, the colours of danger, although the real virus is always portrayed in more beautiful, subtle shades. My painting of the virus, 'Enemy Alien' (acrylic on paper, 70 cm x 50 cm) shows it coming out of a white space as a strange unknown alien, which threatens us all.
