Presenting 'Artists in Quarantine' : Finding Creativity in Self-Isolation
AN INTRO - CURIOUS CAT CHRONICLES
Will Barnet, ‘Meditation and Minou’ (1980) (Will Barnet Trust/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY)
If I had to personify an animal, I would be the artist’s studio cat—the quintessential artist’s muse and a connoisseur of creative comfort in any situation.
I am a plump tabby cat, messing my paws within the puddles of dripping paint, tapping into the leaky kitchen sink faucet, and nestled within the crevices of the bookshelves for a perfect view of the artist at work.
I sit, occasionally stretch and eternally observe by day and night, the sometimes restless and other times meditative inner melodies sung internally (and sometime’s belted out loud) from the artist.
Developing into a strong inner critic, channeling my myriad of grumpiness, playfulness, curiosity and sometimes mischievousness, but not saying too much to interrupt the artist’s methodical and rather spasmodic chains of creative bursts of energy.
I find myself existing simultaneously in parallel lives across the region (much more than 9 loves though!), finding myself in so many of these other artists' studios across the world.
As Agnes Varda had once put it ‘This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera and a cat.'
In artists from the Middle East region, we see the furry creatures depicted in artworks of modern Arab artists like Abdul Hadi El Gazzar (Egyptian, 1925-1966), Hamed Nada (Egyptian, 1924-1990) and Nasser Chaura (Syrian, 1920-1992). Today in the UAE we see the Emirati artist Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim (b.1962) capture a few images with his docile feline.
Cats symbolically from the Middle East region withstand the test of time - their relevance to us humans (domestication) dating back nearly 3,600 years ago in Egypt. Their elegance and prowess to hunt was praised and well-respected, garnering them the status as sacred symbols of divine protection in ancient Egyptian mythology (note: I am NO preacher though!).
Famous artists across the history have been captured with their cats include Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt, to see a few nice photographs below.
It is noted that studio sitters for Gustav Klimat would see cats running rampant all over the artist’s studio, even dancing on his drawings! (his cat’s paw prints were actually found in the back of a print displayed at the Neue Galerie in 2018 in preparation for an exhibition)
Also note: tune into @christiesinc every Saturday for their ‘Saturday Caturday’ Instagram post —it’s the best.
ARTIST IN QUARANTINE SERIES BEGINS
How is this ubiquitous cat to retain its observatory stance during these quarantine times?
There are ways around it, despite no longer paying my frequent feline visits in the physical realm.
Instead, my studio espressos with artists are sipped between the screens as I check out their recent works and discuss newly born creative ideas.
I find myself swirling my paws instead within the pixelated connections of WhatsApp, Zoom calls and Instagram messages.
Of what began as simple conversations with a few artists during the early onset of the isolation to keep myself sane, has now turned into the Artists in Quarantine series.
I decided to display all of these collected images (6 episodes to date) on my Instagram stories along with a few quotes of how they have been creatively coping during the quarantine (saved in my IG Quarantine highlights found HERE).
The responses from artists has been widely diverse, each creative articulating their own isolated thoughts within altering perspectives. Some quotes have been more positive and uplifting than others; each creative is entitled to how they have been channeling these physically immobile and testing days. Just while some are oozing creativity from their paint brushes, others are experiencing a ‘painter’s block’ of blank canvases and empty film rolls. Photographers with limited subjects and changing backdrops have to creatively test their minimal field of focus. Many of these artists are separated from their studio space which is located outside the home, while others are easily able to walk to their studio space down the hall. Some ‘studio’ spaces are literally the outside - in the mountains, alongside the ocean and within masses of people doing their everyday tasks.
Despite the challenges artists are facing today, they are sharing with me their experiences. Productivity doesn’t necessarily have to translate into physical products now does it? ‘Churning’ creativity could be a handful of handpicked nostalgic visuals from our past that keep on recurring in our rather strange quarantined dreams. In what may seem small changes to their practice might just have a monumental, waterfall effect to their future artistic direction.
Some quotes shared with me are longer and more expressive than others, but the smaller quotes are packed with just as much meaning, if not more powerful and poetic.
A few have declined to be a part of this, of which I truly respect. Everyone is dealing with this in their own unique way, just like all of us out there ‘quarantine-ing’ until further notice.
Here is a selection of all of the exciting work artists from across the world have been doing nowadays.
I will continue to publish these photographs and quotes that correspond to to my episodes on Instagram directly onto the gallery page on Mid East Art, so tune in to view the latest additions.
Enjoy reading through, and if you have any artists to nominate or if you are an artist yourself, please shout out!
