Side effects of quarantine may include baking your own bread, watching everything on Netflix and struggling to concentrate. The last of which, has become a particular issue within the art world, according to Turner prize winner, Dame Rachel Whiteread.
While social isolation has allowed some to flourish, others are finding the lack of human contact to be draining both financially and creatively. As such, Whiteread has made the decision to help Artangel, a London-based art foundation, who are providing grants of up to £5,000 to support fledgling artists in these most challenging of times. The collective are also helping emerging creatives, providing them with “thinking time” over the next six months.
Whiteread believes that the initiative is fundamental to the survival of the art world in this country and beyond. She notes: “Artists are finding it very difficult to work. It’s partly financial but it also difficult to know what to work for because everything has closed down and you’re not quite sure what’s happening with shows and galleries and anything that is happening in the future.
Whiteread continued: “This gives hope. It’s not just about money, it is someone putting faith in you in these incredibly uncertain times.”
The artist owes a great deal to Artangel who supported her earlier in her career, prior to winning the Turner prize in 1993 for a concrete cast of an entire East End house.
She concludes: “Everybody is just feeling in limbo. I’m trying to work and I’ve got the money and resources to do that, but trying to do big projects or stuff for the future … it just feels really difficult.
“All of the things that make us human have been taken away from us, things like choice and decision … it takes its toll. It is hard to concentrate. Just going out for a meal or going to the cinema or seeing a show, the interruptions and accompaniments to your day are gone. Everything feels like groundhog day.”
