Artists in Lockdown

Artists in Lockdown, 2020

I wonder, what is it about the ‘lockdown situation’ that has us all talking about noticing ordinary things with new wonder and curiosity? 87 This extraordinary situation has directly disrupted our familial relationships, not only with each other but with the familiar and ordinary things that make up our everyday worlds. Listening to Helen Maurer give a lecture on Zoom, to RCA Ceramic and Glass students during lockdown 2020, I was convinced that here is a human being attuned to passionate attention. She spoke of “turning her attention to ordinary objects with a feeling of love”. She described to us how she is attuning herself to listen to the sounds and language of her home. For example, she was experimenting with the vibrations of elastic bands on the path to her front door. She described the allure of simple things in her home from the washing line to the garden fence to a hula hoop, capturing moments of light, placement or movement. 88 She was finding curiosity and wonder within her ordinary domestic setting at this extraordinary time.

Kenney cites Descartes definition of wonder as ‘a sudden surprise of the soul which makes it consider attentively those objects which seem to it rare and extraordinary.’89 Often (although maybe not often enough) something rare or extraordinary may suddenly capture your attention. But can you elicit a sensual-encounter; a moment of wonder with the ordinary object that you already have in your hand?

87 For example, see the V&A blog of Pandemic Objects including: Hair, The Ground, The Hand Clap and Soap. <https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/pandemic-objects> [accessed June 2020]. 88 Helen Maurer, Ceramics and Glass Lecture on Zoom, Royal College of Art, 28th April 2020. 89 Martha Kenney, Fables of Attention: Wonder in Feminist Theory and Scientific p.11.