The lockdown diaries of artists are showing just how differently isolation is going for Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley.
Commissioned by the White Cube Gallery and posted on its Instagram, the artists are each documenting a week in their lives in lockdown.
While one of Gormley’s diary entries reads: “Mending the 9 squashed lead cases of ‘One Apple’”, Emin’s go a little deeper.
Her first sees her taking the sort of luxurious bath most of us could only dream of, and writing in her characteristically candid way: “Today I would be happy.. today I would celebrate my solitude.. if I were not filled with an overpowering sense of fear.. A darkness.. that has made me want to live more than ever.”
By the second day, she reported feeling “a numbness” and on the third, “anger” as she shouted at someone not socially distancing diligently enough. (“Get between the lines you f***ing idiot.”)
Gormley’s entries are more subdued, choosing to picture a small sculpture of a figure bent over with their head on their arms to show how he feels about isolation.
He shared a picture of his worktop, where he was making his contribution to a free family art activity pack for people to do at home during isolation.
Emin is set to exhibit at the Royal Academy in November in a show about Edvard Munch and his influence on her work.
