Kady Burkimsher (Postgraduate Student

The Lockdown Breakdown - The Art of Unraveling

KADY BURKIMSHER Postgraduate Student

21 days of lockdown. Isolation. Coronavirus. Wuhan. Where is that? What is a pangolin? Military deployed. #stayathome. Home? Johannesburg. South Africa. Day 1. 26 March. 2020. 60-something cases. 3 weeks of isolation ahead. Sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Leave me alone. Is it Monday or Tuesday? I should be more productive. Write a list. Draw up a calendar. Write more lists on the calendar. Watch Tiger King on Netflix instead. Sleep. Eat. Shower. Shower everyday but only ever wear pyjamas. I’m hungry. No wait. Am I bored? Drive outside. Ban on walking. Ghost town. Not one car drove past my house today. Blow dust off Ukulele. “Ting tang”. This is hard. Mom is baking. Faster than we can consume. Rain? It’s already April though. Those hadedas keep waking me up. The rubbish truck came. Does that mean it is Monday then? Stop telling me about coronavirus. Google. “when will COVID-19 end?”. Play same 4 chords on Ukulele 500 times. Sort of sounds like Billie Eilish song. Take video of ukulele progress. Is it real if it wasn’t on Instagram? How many “likes” did it get? Sunshine. Sunburn. These 4 walls. How bouncy is my wall? My first architectural plans. Floating restaurant. 10 years old. Google. “coronavirus cases in SA”. Instagram. “challenges”. No. No to shots of raw eggs and whiskey. No to handstands. Drake. “Toosie Slide”. I will watch. Dance? No. YouTube. Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He’s changed. Trump. Upside-down. Trump. President? Comedian. Friday. Broadcast. National Anthem. Grapefruit. Gross. Google. “can coronavirus get into an orange?”. Thoughts. This is not the first pandemic. This is not the end of the world. Thankful for medical advancements. Thankful for technology. What did people who lived through other pandemics do without the Internet?! Paint. Photograph. White paint finished. Defy law by running to neighbour. ADD. Paint for 10 hours straight. Forget to eat. Paint. On dining room table. Sleep. Can’t sleep. Modern Family. Sleep. At a strange time. 8 days until lockdown is over! House Party App. Friends. Games. Strangers. Help. Love. Sleep. Don’t touch me. I need a hug. Sticker. On mirror. “Drink more water!”. Sketch. Nothing. Corn. Cotton wool. Water. Sprout. Dance. Coffee. Reflection. Time with myself. Radio. 94.7. Dominic Fike. Inspiration. Ukulele. Mac Miller. RIP. South Africa. Lockdown extension. 2 more weeks. Cry. “I’m not crying, you’re crying”. Rewire brain. Shower. Sleep. Sneeze. Sneeze more. Oh no I’ve got it. Doctor. Allergies. LOL. Mask. Sanitizer. Scared. Google.

“how much is it to rent a 1 bed apartment in los angeles”. “how much are architects paid in los angeles vs. new york”. Grapefruit. Daily (with sugar now). WhatsApp. Videocall. TikTok. Justin Bieber. Yummy. No. R18.81 = $1. Mom. Groceries. Oranges. Boiling water. Trump. “It’s like a miracle – it will disappear”. Not “fake news”. Not a doctor. Biden. Democratic candidate. Said he visited Nelson Mandela in prison. In Soweto. Gosh. Easter is cancelled this year. No family. No feast. Just photos on the family WhatsApp group of my nephew with chocolate on his face. #quarantine. Misused word for “isolation”. Social distancing. Protect each other. Common goal. United country. United global action. Beautiful. Terrifying. Unprecedented. Instagram. @thehumannarative. Cape Town. Tent village. Starvation. Refugees. Cry. University of the Witwatersrand. Online classes. 20 April. Stress. Architecture School. Honours. Important year. Which year isn’t? Desk. Shower. Shoes. Not just socks. Read lists. Scratch out lists. Write new lists. Design. Crit. Design. Crit. Design. Design. Redesign. Un-design. Up-design. Purple. Restart. Rethink. Get up. Brownies. Global Citizens Concert. One World at Home. Ellie Goulding. Niall Horan. Google. “One Direction”. Watch until 3am. Google. “Jack Dorsey”. Carte Blanche. Lonely. Fat. “Lus” for wine. Alcohol restrictions. Leave house. Pick ‘n Pay. Mall. Naked mannequins. Eerie. Avoid humans. Run. Don’t forget the milk. Home. Sanitize. Wash. Panic. Interrogation by household. Replay trip in mind to scan for possible threats of infection. Forgot the milk. Dinner. Spaghetti. Again. Sleep. Shower. Sneeze. Nose spray. Battery. 3%. Google. “What is a void?”. “What is the significance of a void”. ‘Voicenotes’ friend. 9 min 53 sec. Instagram. Stories. ‘Screenshot’ song title. YouTube. Search song title. Screenshot related song titles for future downloads. Netflix. Movie with mom. A mom kind of movie. Bored. Sing. Dance. Jog in one spot. Go away! Stop making a noise. . Go breathe somewhere else. Who ate the last biscuit?! Birds. Lots. Beautiful. Noise. Must end. Throw stone. Sunshine. Roll up pants. Hairy legs. Roll down pants. Sunset. Orange. Purple. Mosquitoes. Last of the gin. News. Thembekile Mrototo. Testing. Numbers. Looting. Turn off. Think. Netflix. Abstract. Olufar Eliasson. Colour. Light. Perspective. Illusion. Escape. Break law. Go for run. Gate to postbox. Gate to postbox. 12 times. Shower. Blast radio. Friday. National Anthem. Class. Microsoft Teams. Can you hear me? Can

you see my screen? Where is the “end call” button? Linear. Flat humans. Assignments. Cross out days on calendar. Count days on calendar. Talk to self. Be strict on self. Set rules for self. Sit at desk. Wear a bra. Work. Sketch. Play. Jump. Walk to fridge. Look at lettuce. Open window. Storm. Hail. Unplug the Wi-Fi. Realization. No load shedding during lockdown? What a nice surprise. Dad. The US are printing money. The economy is going to crash. Google. “where is US stimulus package coming from?”. Cyril Ramaphosa. Patriarch. Trust. Bold. Protective. National Address. Stage 5 Lockdown. 30 April will shift to Stage 4 Lockdown. No end in sight. Isolation. Acceptance. Sleep. Leave house. Checkers. Masks on. Used to be embarrassing. Now social suicide to be seen without one. Stickers on the floor. Social distancing. Feels cold. Impersonal. Surreal. Man in queue behind me dressed in worker’s overalls. Just enough coins for bread rolls and a Coke. I pay for his groceries. Think about him and others like him all day. It’s going to get so much tougher in the months to come. Desk. No shoes. Design. Happy. Crit. Sad. Frustrated. Confused. Start again. Sketch. Nothing. Again. LinkedIn. Need a profile pic. Professional. Not boring. Pinterest. “unusual professional photograph”. Mistake. Google. “how much does is cost to build a ‘tiny house’?”. Green. Trump. Republicans protesting. They want haircuts. They say no to masks. “Haha”. Oops. Baking. Cupcakes. Fatter. Eat gemsquash to compensate. Giggle fit out of nowhere. Warm up ‘wheaty’ (wheat bag). Sleep. Wake up at 2am standing in kitchen. Go back to sleep. Sleep through alarm. Wake up. Run. Call into History lecture. “camera off” button. Pajamas. South African. Nationalist. Union. White. Black. Grey. Churches. Spires. Bullies. Or heroes. Perspective. Brick. Bleh. Assignment. “Perspective of home”. Tape measure. House. Awkward. Noisy. Plan. Cold. Socks. Week 5 of Lockdown. News. SA pandemic projection. Worst case. Peak. September. Predict. 1.5 Million cases in Gauteng. Google. “am I allergic to grass?”. “how long does a cat live?”. I am kind of enjoying being at home. Kind of scared to leave home someday. I don’t remember if I have already showered today or not. A braai? Okay. Rain. Boerewors. Oven. Why is it still raining at the end of April?! Google. “Greta Thunberg”. 7pm. Vuvuzelas. Thank you healthcare workers! Silence phone. “Fake news”. Conspiracies. Coronavirus designed in a lab. China. Must backup hard drive incase

my laptop gives up. Google Drive full. Reduction in air pollution. Dolphins in Venice. Animals in the streets. Zoo reversal. No work. Retrenchment. No money. But nothing to spend it on. No entertainment. Miss friends. Miss family. Miss human interaction. Sleep. Breathe. Deeply. Sigh. Art. Build models. Cereal boxes. Stress. Can you feel it too? YouTube. Daily Show. Trump. “Inject disinfectant”. Bonus episode of Tiger King. Did Carole Baskin do it? That guy got new teeth. Earth day. She is probably happy we are all imprisoned. Turn off lights. Netflix. The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes. Tiny House Nation. Still need to backup work. Nephew number two on the way. Will we be allowed to meet him? Maybe in 6 months’ time. What else will we miss this year? 2020 is cancelled. Rain. End of April. Climate Change. #Icannothandleanothercrisis. Google. “if it rains in winter, will it snow instead?”. Day 33 of lockdown. Tuesday. 28 April. Worldwide. 3,080,101 cases. 929, 077 recovered. 212,265 death toll. Epicentre. New York. USA. Google. “Coronavirus SA”. 4,793 cases. 1,473 recovered. 90 deaths. The action of typing seems so irrelevant in the face of this crisis. Sanity? Coffee. A new lockdown habit. Tomorrow? I don’t know.

The significance of this moment in time is one that will shape generations to come. The way in which the world shares space, ideas and products will shift with the lessons learnt. With all respect to the academic research to follow about the effects of the pandemic on the world we know today, the place we take up in time in this very moment does not feel calculated. It is not well-formulated in a neat written article with a beginning, middle and end. This is a moment of shock and fear. Perhaps we have never been offered such an opportunity before. To feel this undeniably, emotionally human. As our thoughts and actions revert to primal instinct, the significance of “now” is absolute.