Finding Solitude
Award-winning illustrator and author Sophie Burrows is our artist-in-residence this month. This online exhibition showcases three sequences – one each week – created for this project and inspired by conversations about our research.
Sophie has created visual narratives that take place in the same neighbourhood, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She explores with each of them the theme of shared solitudes, the idea of some kind of connectedness simply through the mutual experience of being alone.
A note from the artist
‘Each of us will think about solitude in a unique way. We will form our own individual opinions about it, and your experience will likely be different to my own. These differences seem to have been amplified over the course of the pandemic. From talking to others around me, I got the sense that the usual balance between alone-ness and together-ness we were all used to was tipped; homes that were usually busy felt bursting, while those who lived alone experienced more emptiness than usual. This sequence was made while thinking of several questions. Firstly, how different are each of our experiences of solitude? In which spaces, in what times, do each of us find solitude? How do our roles at work or in the home influence our experience of solitude?’
You can read more about the sequence here and find out more about Sophie’s work on her website and her social media (@burrowsdraws and @burrowsdraws).