Call out for images for new #WFH artwork
The Northern School of Art is on the lookout for anyone to become part of a once-in-a-generation work of art that captures the new working from home workforce (#WFH) as the nation responds to Covid-19.
In a creative bid to capture all the amazing personalities, homes and people that are now working at home behind closed doors, the School has put out a call for people to send a screen shot of their ‘working from home’ video call screen ‘face’ or the ‘space’ they now call their workplace.
The images will be used to create an artwork of all the faces and places of the unique situation experienced by the COVID-19 #WFH community.
Award-winning artist Narbi Price is amongst those that have already responded with a beautiful photo of his book-lined armchair workspace, pictured at the top.
Prefab Sprout singer and guitarist and Director of Creative learning at Sage Gateshead Wendy Smith has shared her newly created home workspace – a battered old 1930s chest of drawers which she is planning to paint.
Meanwhile Simon Costin, art director, set designer and the director of Cornwall-based Museum of Witchcraft and Magic and the nomadic Museum of British Folklore has shared an image of the face behind the space, below, in his unique location.
The Northern School of Art’s staff have also been sharing their work faces and spaces.
Illustration degree programme leader and published author, artist and animator, Niel Bushnell, has submitted an image of him in his home office with his face intriguingly framed by a magnifying glass, below.
Pat Chapman, The Northern School of Art’s Vice Principal, said the idea sprang from the way that people are now connecting in new ways and keeping in touch with one another, working, caring, sharing and supporting one another but from behind closed doors.
“We’re all working from home now and who hasn’t found it just a little bit interesting peering into our colleagues’ homes and seeing what’s behind them during the video calls that are now a regular feature of our lives?”
Pat, whose own workspace image features a backdrop of watercolour paintings, observed: “From discarded fineliners, art, pictures, a lot of IKEA bookshelves, pets, kids, the ‘pile’ – it’s all there. Our ‘working from home’ personalities writ large across the screens of the nation.”
The School is collecting the images via Instagram.
“We’re hoping to make this truly interactive and online so you can find yourself (and maybe the boss),” Pat added.
“We’re all in it together; let’s get together and snapshot this strange and unique time we have shared, whilst looking forward to the future where we can enjoy being together again.”
To submit an image upload it to Instagram using the hashtag #WFH and tag @thenorthernart in the caption and image. Your name or identifier would be great, alongside any other information you’d like to submit, such as the type of work you do.
The image can be your workspace or even just a screen grab of your new working at home screen ‘face’ – see some examples of some images sent in already.
The Northern School of Art is the only provider of specialist creative courses in the North East with a rating of Gold in the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework which means its students receive some of the highest quality teaching in the UK.
Details of the School’s wide range of specialist creative courses at its university-level campus in Hartlepool and post-16 campus in Middlesbrough are available at www.northernart.ac.uk
