Making creative work during lockdown has been exciting yet challenging for many artists and producers. How do you work collaboratively during a time you cannot share space? How can you create work which has social cohesion and participation at its core when you cannot gather a crowd? How do you make a living and support other artists to do the same when nothing is certain and spending is being tightened? I think the answer to all of these is tentatively and with no expectation of a definitive outcome.
As artists and producers we are malleable by nature. We respond directly to ever changing stimuli and output our findings in our medium of choice. We are adventurers, seeking out fresh and exciting ways to convey old and familiar ideas. Everything we do is a communication. Sometimes it is one way, leaving the audience to digest and ruminate in their own time…but what about when we need the two way dialogue and the feedback? How do we satiate that desire?
I’ve been so interested in the various ways that artists have reinvented themselves and their practice during this time. There has been so much more than just putting work online; it has triggered a wave of interesting propositions and invitations to experience new ways of working. It is possible that this enforced evolution will ripple out way beyond restrictions being lifted and will impact the creative sector in ways we wouldn’t have imagined 18mths ago.
Creative people are resilient; let’s hope that resilience brings swathes of interesting, self aware and safe to access work to immerse ourselves in as we continue to move out of this period. Let’s hope that we can continue to look after each other as well as be moved, inspired and entertained.
