Social Art in the Time of Social Distancing (2020)

By

Axis

In the second episode of the ‘Live Out Loud’ podcast, by Axis, we’re talking about ‘Social Art in a Time of Social Distancing’ – how artists with a social practice are responding to the current imperative to ‘stay home’ and ‘save lives’ – in marked contrast to the highly embedded and embodied ways they might ordinarily work with other people and communities.

Podcast host Lucy Wright, a social practitioner herself, is joined by three artists also working socially; Rupi Dhillon, Sophie Bownes and Natasha Alexander.

There are no rights and wrongs of how artists opt to continue their practice – or perhaps to take a break – at this unprecedented time, and this podcast showcases three different, but equally valid perspectives and approaches, from Rupi’s efforts to transfer her participatory work from a ‘lived’ to ‘virtual’ space, through Sophie’s reflections on the importance of resisting the pressure to be ‘hyperproductive’ during a global pandemic, and finally to the social art underpinnings of The Social Distance Art Project, a student-led initiative to offer an alternative to the traditional art school degree show, unavailable to this year’s cohort of art students.