Sarah Coppard
A Pandemic Portrait is an exploration of the experience of lockdown expressed through three main themes; Friends and Family, Nature and the idea of the Home. It takes the form of a model of a house constructed using a technique similar to traditional wattle and daub buildings. Inside are a collection of varnished objects made by friends and family as part of a postal art project where 100g balls of clay were sent to participants with an invitation to 'make something' and send back their creations. Inspired by time based ceramic artists working with raw clay, the house has been impregnated with grass seed and left to sit outside. 'Watered' each day, and subject to the destructive forces of the elements, this film charts its decay and gradual dissolution. As the grass grows, marking the passage of time, so the idea of the home turns from safe domestic space and place of refuge into something more menacing, highlighting the duality of our relationship with the home throughout the course of the pandemic. What remains however are the pieces made by friends and family, speaking to the enduring nature of human relationships and connection despite physical distance.
A Pandemic Portrait, air dry and stoneware clays, acrylic paint and varnish, straw, wire, twine, grass seed, 450mmx450mmx350mm