Who is smiling now-lockdown.

Reflecting on the experiencing of the virus by Clive Hale, the headteacher of St Paul's School

Most obvious is the reference to covid19. The yellow circles, everywhere. The corona, a crown sits centre, wearing the crosses of the many indiscriminate deaths the virus has caused and continues to cause. Red flashes of movement in and around the virus match the changing tide and shifting tides of ideas, theory and strategy. If it were grey the virus would resemble an unexploded sea mine, bobbing about, crossing waters. And bringing the effects of the virus across the world. Closing borders, towns, cities, business, industry, homes and houses as we shut down and isolated.

The top red splashes are the creeping anxiety coming in and around the virus closing in, getting nearer, pervading thought and life. 

Blue zig zags a harsh toothy, rasped, jagged reality, the NHS in the grips of crisis, us in need of the NHS. The biting truth and fear we try to put away with varying success or not as day to day brutal truths and numbers force us further into or away from our bubbles, favouring denial or ignorance as a mechanism for survival. Also represented in the blue is the waxing and waning of mood and emotion. 

The grey truth, surrounded by the colourful spaces and moments, ingenuity, creativity and hope. 

A black chart plots ‘progress’. A black blob.... where the title should be, the deaths not counted. Off the page, not known, not there to be counted. Perhaps the unknown costs and longer term consequences. 

Silver lines cross on top of this print. A very conscious silver lining, crossing the borders of the print in the hope of small wins, a brighter day tomorrow and a returning smile. 

But who is smiling now....

The typically yellow faced emoji has lost is smile. Technology has been a saving grace, something of our own abuse of nature may be the cause, but nature has relished the backlash, our urban spaces have enjoyed a rejuvenation from nature. The air is better. There is less traffic, there is less noise. We are starting to come back to a new normal and finding the old normal was not always that enjoyable as traffic sits for longer, planes fly over with increasing regularity and the time boundaries of work start becoming less flexible.

The virus is a king with a smirking smile.

The unconscious in this print is found in the mis- aligned edges, the shadows in the borders and edges, nothing lines up, seemingly as if nothing is really in control. The blotched red on the virus, nothing is quite where it should be, but nonetheless indicating movement, shifting sands, new ideas, changed thinking, creating a bit of a mess. 

The red smears, controversy, conflicting ideas, errant advisors tripping into the countryside. 

Parts of the picture cross the borders, boldly... As no man has gone before, crossing the line, breaking the rules, exploring and finding new possibilities. 

In truth the silver lining is a faint vapour trail across the picture, perhaps indicative of the frailty of the hope, or the closed borders and upset travel plans, a pattern less sky and a new kind of quiet, maybe the lifeline of the oxygen going through the ventilators.