Rusholme Isolation

philbxyz's profile picture philbxyz Introducing my new project on day 3 of my self-isolation in Manchester. Three rules: 1 Reference current pandemic. 2 Use only materials available to me at home. 3 Reference an artist or school. This work shows the total recorded C-19 deaths on each day in January 2020. Same exponential pattern we're now seeing in London. A (long way) after...Jasper Johns. Rule 4 added making this work: Each piece not to take more than three hours to make! I got mighty sympathetic to Seurat and co as I dotted away with an allen key! #coronavirus #jasperjohns #selfisolation #project #acrylicpainting #allenkey #creativityeveryday #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 2: Reaction to time spent on No1 in the series...collage. A whole lot quicker. Suspension of the sporting calendar was when it all got serious. School of comic artists in Britain during 60s and 70s of my youth. August 1970 I'd just got my O Level (GCSE) results - nothing like as spectacular as Roy's on-field exploits!! #Tiger #Beano #Dandy #RoyoftheRovers #covoid19 #nosport #socialdistancing

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 3: Social Distancing with Anthony Gormley - a how to guide. #ladybirdbooks #howto #anthonygormley #anotherplace #angelofthenorth #royalacademyofarts #thefield #socialdistancing #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 4: Lockdown with Piet Momdrian...I think we may well all be stir crazy in three months time! Adding to the fun, I don't think he ever actually painted it - but you can buy it from New York Blackboard - empty handed! #mondrian #creatuveindusties #coronavirus #lockdown #selfisolation #waiting #stircrazy #hands #threemonths #artandscience #order/disorder @artandsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 5: Social distancing with Richard Long..."A line made by walking over there". Excercise visits to the park fine for now, but do keep your distance folks! Home printer struggling with lockdown too. #richardlong #tatemodern #grass #desireline #conceptualart #1967 #2020 #ecoart #bristol #manchester @artsciencecsm #artandscience

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 6: Giving it out for the NHS with Albrecht Dürer. Twighlight clapping across the country, including Rusholme, at 8.00 last night. Brilliant and so well deserved! #dürer #albrechtdürer #engraving #prints #nhs #frontline #emergencyservices #thankyou #stars @artsciencecsm #artandscience #brilliant

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 7: Monday morning. This one brings me closer to home as the mood darkens. Outside the Mather & Platt factory in Newton Heath, "Going to Work" by LS Lowry commissioned war artist in 1943 and today as for many, going to work simply involves turning on a computer. Politicians talk about the blitz spirit, but this time the 'enemy's is within... You can't see the work @imperialwarmuseums North, but will be able to again. In the 1980s I was invited in demolishing & decontamination the abandoned engineering works in Newton Heath. Now @manchestercity usually plays there #lslowry #lowry #matchstickpeople #warartist #homefront #homeworking #isolation #distancing #eastlands #digitalworld meets #analogueworld

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 8: Corona Virus on the move. Alexander Calder worked in wire and movement. Using black, white and primary colours, his mobile sculptures have long been an inspiration. Given the speed at which Covoid 19 has circled the world, it seems right to mark its dispersion through global movement #alexandercalder #calder #mobile #sculpture #movement #covoid19 #coronavirus #pandemic #spreading #worldwide #globalisation #modernism

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 9: It will soon be time for the twilight clap to honour the NHS and emergency services. I hope you'll be joining our street and the rest of the country wherever you are. Just keep your hands socially distanced... in the style of the cave painting artists of Lascaux 15,000 years ago. They had no-one to help them fight off viruses. #cavepainting #lascaux #france #artists #caves #socialdistancing #selfisolation #nhs #clapping #gratitude #heros #artandscience @artandsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 10: A photo essay on the pandemic with Gillian Wearing. In 1992/3 she invited members of the public in the street to make "Signs that Say Whay You Want Them To Say..." and took their picture. Today they won't be in the street, but if they were these might be the signs they'd make... #gillianwearing #coronavirus #lockdown #people #innerthoughts #ondisplay #photography #co-creation #streets #portraits #diversity #adversity #nouniversity @artandsciencecsm #centralsaintmartins #artandscience

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 11: This one's personal following a letter from UAL informing me that my entire masters is going to be assessed by PowerPoint and PDF. I know it's small beer at present but, as we're all working from home, zooming and now being taught and assessed digitally, the battle with Covoid 19 means the monopolistic, freeloading, tech giants have won the war. What would Caravagio have made of it four centuries ago? #caravaggio #emmaus #teacher #digital #analogue #values #loss #dispiriting #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 12: JMW Turner's 1812 'Snow Storm: Hannibal Crossing the Alps' repurposed for 2020. Our elephant in the room is the 'free' market in travel, technology and exploiting Gaia, which inevitably led to a global re-connection with nature, of which we are a part. I offer you 'Gathering Storm: Covoid 19 Crosses the Planet'. #jmwturner #hannibal #alps #snowstorm #elephants #gatheringstorm #covid19 #globalisation #gaia #planetearth #beyondthelimits #lawofunintendedconsequences #artandscience @artandsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 13: The mounting PPE scandal with help from Bridget Riley. HM Government ignored a simulated pandemic excercise in 2016, ran down stocks to save money, turned down 3 opportunities to participate in EU joint procurement and accuses NHS staff of wasting PPE. And the army of volunteers willing to make PPE can't get safe materials to use. They must be able to keep out Covid 19 virus. #bridgetriley #opticalillusion #safetygear #PPE #scandal #NHS #pandemic #itsnotagame #headsmustroll #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 13: Nature will not be mocked! After fifty years of GDP growth at all costs and forty years of neo-liberalism, nature is fighting back. If we don't change course, she will continue to do so. For Tracey Emin, its personal! #traceyemin #itsnotagame #naturefightsback #planetarylimits #extinction #remembernatureual #artandscience @artsciencecsm #itspersonal

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 15: Serious Covid 19 disruption with Marcel Duchamp and Deep Purple's "Flight of the Rat"! In the 1930's interest in mechanical art and optical illusion led to him making Rotlreliefs to be played on a turntable. In 1970 Deep Purple announced told us to "be careful what you touch". 2020 and corona virus shows no sign of leaving town. #marcelduchamp

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 16: Alexander Rodchenko weighs into the autopsy on the Government's woeful performance on testing. 100,000 tests a day anyone? Beautiful portrait of Lilya Blick and striking graphics shout it to the world. OK, he was selling books, but so much urgent shout out was crying out to be repurposed for these viral times# #constructivism #rodchenko #lilyablick #covid19 #testing #poster #graphicdesign #collage #publichealth #lockdown2020 #emergence #wereallinthistogether #artandscience @artandsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 17: Paul Klee, famous for taking a line for a walk, while we can only take one walk a day asks the question of the moment. Answer comes there none... #paulklee #bauhaus #line #walk #lockdown #noendinsight #covıd19 #pandemic2020 #howarewedoing #lackofleadership #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 18: Edward Hopper makes social distancing a virtue until, outrageously, he's Trumped. Ignorance is no defence and the US President no match for a clever germ. Mind you, nor is Bolsenaro orJohnson. Me is everything.. #edwardhopper #lonely #lockdown #distancing #disinfectant #cureall #snakeoilsalesman #fakenews #fakeleaders #artandscience @artandsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 19: Swan No 18 was painted by Hilma af Klint in 1914 as the Grim Reaper was getting busy in northern France. For her the swan symbolised transcendence & the union of opposites. Here the painting raises contemporary questions about humanity's eadly relationship with Covoid 19 and our symbiotic relationship with many other viruses. #hilmaafklint #swans #opposites #transcendence #symbolism #abstractart #beforehertime #painting #artandscience @artsciencecsm

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 20a: This is a two part piece made up of two pieces! We're going Fluxus with Yoko Ono's 1964 Travel Piece (from her wonderful Grapefruit publication) which could have been written as Covid 19's raison d'etre... #yokoono #grapefruit #travel #doorkey #burnthehouse #covid19 #pandemic #globalisation #lockdown

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 20b: Part 2 in response to Yoko Ono's 1964 Travel Piece - People Piece 2020. My rallying call to post Covid19 humans as they remember they are part of nature and not superior to it. What really counts? #yokoono #fluxus #home #smallthings #intothelight #enlightenment #spring #covıd19 #pandemic #remembernature

philbxyz Rusholme Isolation 20 : Covid 19! This is the last piece in this series as it overtakes the virus, reaching back through 8 weeks of self-isolation & lockdown. I've enjoyed seeking out great artists to help me express my sadness, anger, frustration & hope at the human condition. Following forty years of laughing at nature, she's back to bite us on the bum. My hope is that we'll heed the warning and centre new, more collaborative, less greedy and more balanced values in society, economics, technology and culture. #rusholmeisolation # covid19 #pandemic #artists #laughingatnature #hope #balance #collaboration #values

Since an enforced lock-down return to Manchester I have been responding to the Covid 19 pandemic through re-purposing the work of artists or art schools as an occasional series of Instagram posts as part of my creative response to the frustration and anger at the curtailment of my masters in the run-up to my, now postponed, degree show and the mismanagement of the UK Government.

On St Patrick’s Day, 17th March, I left London to self-isolate in Manchester, abandoning my degree show installations in the Archway studios.

In a state of shock, I decided to re-ignite my creativity by publicly committing to a new Instagram project. The rules were simple:

work must comment on the Covid-19 pandemic
it must be made with the (limited) materials available to me at home
it must re-purpose or re-invent the work of an established artist
it must take no longer than four hours to make

I posted the first on on 20th March and the 20th (I wanted to overtake Covid-19) on 18th May. No doubt there will be occasional follow up posts!

You can follow my Instagram @PhilBxyz or see all my posts at the bottom of the home screen for this site.

Rusholme Isolation

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