These works were created during the Covid 19 lockdown of 2020. I found myself unable to continue working on some projects as the shutdown occurred due to the closures of borders and travel restrictions. As the world shrank to the confines of home and the domestic sphere I began to think about making something that reflected this time and make work on a more intimate scale. 

I set a really limited parameter of just using only pencil and graphite, learning to use all shades and grades. As the news of the origns of the virus spillover unfolded I happened to see a documentary on Asian wet markets and so chose the animals found in them as my starting point. I was also thinking about Illuminated Manuscripts and how historically they were documents of knowledge and literacy in a time when many were unable to access them but they maintained a lineage of knowledge to be passed down. It occured to me that we have largely lost our sense of “literacy” or ability to read the natural world so I wanted to create a record of this moment that we are in with in this framework. The animals are all nestled in their habitats, the foliage that surrounds them protects and contains both them and the virus particles. Our intrusion and destruction of habitat has brought us into contact with pathogens we would normally be buffered from thanks to biodiversity. The wet markets, by placing species together that would normally never meet in the wild has amplified and accelerated the spillover that has now brought the world to a standstill. A microscopic, invisible peice of genetic material has halted and humbled our species. A virus is just genetic code looking for a habitat and sadly for us it looks as though it may be here to stay.