Recording Lockdown
When ‘lockdown’ was announced by Boris Johnson on the 23rd March I soon realised that normal life would be on hold for a while. Plans made, holidays booked, celebrations forthcoming- all abandoned for the time being. This time of year is usually a busy one for me at the Victoria & Albert Museum but, with shutdown, I was furloughed until the end of June with some unexpected time now on my hands. I felt compelled to capture my experience in some way and, like many others, started to record my thoughts and feelings in a sort of “Lockdown Diary”. However, I have to admit that I’m not really very good at writing a diary after all and now, reading through my random jottings, I’m not convinced that they should be read by anyone else but me! Yes, there are entries about the problem of finding toilet rolls, pasta and tinned tomatoes but nobody wants to hear about that any more! Then there are the days when my thoughts take on a distinctly romantic style as I lapse into lengthy ramblings seasoned with nostalgia about the virtues of a bygone age and a simpler way of life, not to mention the melodramatic descriptions about the beautiful weather contrasting with the grim reality of the situation. Further along there are unconstrained outpourings of emotion at the injustice of having to distance myself from my grandchildren and rantings about the stark contrast between my life and for those on the front line. In short a bit of a literary embarrassment probably best kept private! So, I’m afraid I won’t be going public with my memoir after all but can tell you about what else has kept me busy during lockdown.
One advantage of being a creative individual is that there is always have a multitude of unfinished ‘projects’ you can dip into. For me it’s my sewing and painting that I turn to. Often working alone I was already familiar with the concept of ‘self isolation’ though had never called it that! Before Covid19 I was actually working towards having an exhibition of my paintings at the Clocktower Cafe. This, of course, has been cancelled for the foreseeable future but I have decided to continue producing work for it during lockdown anyway. My usual subject matter of seascapes and landscapes has been replaced by subjects much closer to home. Visits to our allotment, walks to Shirley to catch glimpses of our grandchildren in their back garden and even ‘home’ itself have become the focus of these new works. Near- deserted roads seen from my studio window, the gardens passed on my daily walks, familiar rooms in my own house and even the scarecrows on the allotment have now become new sources of inspiration.
These images seem a more successful expression of my experience than my written account, itself now another ‘unfinished project’, and I will be happy to show them alongside my other work when the time comes.
Sylvia Nuthall
Collections Volunteer
Museum of Croydon Volunteer
