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Whether it’s finding inventive ways to entertain increasingly furious children in lockdown, or keeping yourself away from TV in the evenings, there’s a lot of pressure to be ‘creative’ right now. But anxieties about work, health, finances and, well, everything make it difficult to find the space or motivation to produce art. Like Fleabag, sometimes you just want somebody to tell you what to do.
To try and make lockdown a little more bearable, artists Antony Gormley, Grayson Perry, Gillian Wearing, Michael Landy and others have come together to create a free, downloadable activity book. It’s called ‘Art Is Where the Home Is’ and the idea is that every project can fit on a single A4 sheet of paper, and you won’t need any specialist materials.
The concept came from Firstsite, a contemporary art gallery in Colchester, whose director Sally Shaw told the Guardian that she got the idea from memories of school holidays, when she would pass the time with a ‘massive book called The Big Book of Things to Do’.
Seeing as artists like Gillian Wearing and Jeremy Deller are taking part, the activities will be a bit more leftfield than dot-to-dots or colouring in. Antony Gormley’s task involves making a daisy chain of people. Harold Offeh wants you to create an album cover. And Mark Wallinger (whose sculpture of Christ was the first to appear on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square) wants people to draw a hand and place it in their front window to create one big wave.
Are the ideas mostly aimed at children? Yes. But don’t let that stop you. We’re all just trying to get through lockdown here.
‘Art Is Where the Home Is’ will be available to download this Friday, April 3. Sign up here.
Missing London’s museums and galleries? Take a virtual tour.