It has been almost three months since the world as we knew it has changed
Lara: a work in progress started in Berlin and currently being finessed in Sydney. She is Cara’s sister and made from beautiful Italian calcite..
It has been almost three months since the world as we knew it has changed, plans have been cancelled, travel halted, schools and work disrupted, and we have had enforced introspection time and isolation time. Even though I work alone in my studio, the change in the outside world was so dramatic that at first, I was frozen. I was unable to relax enough to even go into my studio, which I share with only myself!
The world seemed to realise the enormity of the problem in the middle of March, when I was down in Melbourne for the opening of Melbourne Design Week at the NGV and also for a joint exhibition I was taking part in, at Modern Times in Fitzroy. Over the few days I was there, Tom Hanks was diagnosed with COVID-19 and our PM realised he wouldn’t be able to go to the rugby league, and that definitive action had to be taken to limit the spread of the virus. I arrived home from Melbourne on the 15th of March, and basically the world around us closed in – isolation was the buzz word. We also had to make the decision to temporarily close the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School in late March, of which I am the Chair (of the Management Committee) - the school is a beacon of creativity for so many, and its closure was very poignant for staff, teachers and students. (There is a glimmer of light for the school, with the lifting of restrictions, as I write this.
We had to stay home to keep ourselves and others safe – and we did.
As time passed, I started to go into the studio and tried to put outside worrying thoughts away. I started with short stints, picking up unfinished pieces that had sat on my workbench for many months. Polishing sculptures, vacuuming dust and just sitting in that space of tranquillity. There were so many unknowns in my mind, so many sad and dire stories, such wide effects of this virus – no one would be unaffected – sometimes it was very hard to put this in perspective. But then I started to turn off the news radio after listening to the morning briefing, limit my reading of newspapers and started to focus on the good news stories and to see the positive that can come from the negative – and little by little I was able to spend more time in my studio. And that time became more and more productive.
I feel very fortunate to live in Australia, given what’s going on in other parts of the world. There is always a glimmer of hope, a twinkling of positivity, and from this creativity is nourished.
I was delightfully surprised to see one of my sculptures included in a beautifully curated feature article in the May/June edition of Vogue Living (pictured below) – I’d like to thank Style Editor of VL Joseph Gardner and photographer Victoria Zschommler for the inclusion and the beauty they created.
I have particularly loved working with small eggs of bardiglio alabaster that have hatched into some beautiful little bundles of joy – some of which are named Alma, Igi, Kleiner Maus and Kreplach. And then I have also decided to brighten up the world with some pink and peach sculptures – Rosita and Yente are their names. Please contact me if you are interested in giving one of my sculptures a new home.
I finish writing this personal update as the world is now coming out of lockdown (albeit listening to the horrific news coming out of the US), there are still a lot of unknowns out there, but this is now our new normality.
4th June 2020
Carol Crawford