The Self-Isolation Residency 31st March 2020: Day 2

dA42m, Cowhouse Studios Artist Residency 2011

As I mentioned yesterday I will from time to time during this residency I will reflect back to previous works and residency when relevant. Today I have been thinking again about the idea of self-isolation but also but also about that other key phrase that is being so heavily used at the moment 'social distancing'. We are being advised that when we do go out that we should retain a minimum distance from other people of at least 2m or 6 feet. I love to play with mathematics in my work, be it the kind of complex equations and trigonometry that I use to create my spatial-paintings or the more playful approach  to numbers that I employed in the piece above; 'A42m'. This was another experimental piece which explored the circumference of an A4 sheet of paper, which is bizarrely 1.14m. By making a simple cut on two sheets of A4 I created two differently proportioned sheets of paper which both have a 1m circumference.  This piece of course immediately came back to my mind when considering the social distancing policy today.

So, social distancing, or personal space as we used to call it in more innocent times. I prefer the term personal space, I suppose you could argue that its not the same thing but it is, the only difference is what used to be a courtesy is now legislated. I've seen various people making jokes and memes that illustrate how much space the 6 feet or 2m that we are actually supposed to be keeping between each other is on the internet. In keeping with this I have once again been thinking about how this distance relates to me personally, when I am allowed to go back out into society that is. I am myself 6 feet tall, so I should keep my height between myself and the next person; my height or the span of my arms which is of course also 6 feet. When that particular thought came into my head it was accompanied by a very famous image, it was the image of a man with his arms stretched wide: Leonard da Vinci's illustration of Vitruvian Man. Three Vitrurvian Men standing in this stance would enact this idea, albeit imperfectly. of social distancing. Once I had thought this I of course couldn't resist this simple idea and have had to act of it for today's simple sketch or study. I would have been a hypocrite if I didn't, I have always said to my students when they ask the question about an idea, 'should I do it?' that the answer to that question is always 'yes'. You may not always get what you want or expect from perusing an idea in this way, but you will always learn something, even if it is only not to do it again!

Not quite how it works Mr Da Vinci! : Self-Isolation Residency Day 2.