Friday 17 April 2020 – ‘Message from the Vice-Chancellor’
I feel that adapting to the ‘new normal’ has not been as difficult for me as it might have been for others – I am not the most extroverted of people, but also having grown up as a young carer I became used to spending a lot of time at home, distanced from others.
And yet, officially hearing from the vice-chancellor of my university that my expectant graduation ceremony will no longer take place hit me – something so trivial given the ongoing horrors and tragedy, yet it hit me how uncertain the future is. Unlike some of my friends, I am not upset nor angry but rather the bemused by the out-of-the-blue realisation of how fragile things really are. Events that appear unquestionable, expectant, solidified without our diaries for months, are just dissolving.
The 4 years of my degree have been working towards a Degree Show – a huge exhibition, a blockbuster celebration, an accumulation of everything. Even this has fallen away – how does one continue to make art when that art cannot be ‘shown’ in its physicality? I think this is a major question facing all practising artists and art students. One positive thing is perhaps how this circumstance is forcing museums and galleries to adjust, to make the collections viewable online or in readily available print – something which should have happened years ago so that those who are not able to leave their home or travel, do not miss out.
Along this line, I wish online grocery deliveries would acknowledge that there are people who have always relied upon these services and now cannot access them due to the influx – if you are physically and mentally able, please please please do continue shopping at your usual supermarket (of course with precautions, and only for essential food shops) as you could be taking up a food delivery slot that another family relies upon.
I haven’t left the house in 4 weeks and 1 day, I have stopped reading or watching the news, it is hard not being able to plan ahead, I wish people would not stockpile, I wish I had a cat …
Dr Kristopher Lovell 