Lockdown Renewal Exhibition
A virtual exhibition of Barbara Blum’s new work on canvas. Barbara is an artist living close to the riverside in Gravesend. Here’s her commentary on her work:
“This started off with a sketch I’d done in 2011. During lockdown I destroyed a lot of work- one has to- but some of the works I didn’t destroy. Some I folded in half and tore in half. In some cases I reconstructed the two halves so that they are independent works and when you put them together they could read [as one]. And this was one of those. I decided to use it as the basis for this painting. But when I started the painting I had no idea how it would turn out.
The building on the right is the Port of London Authority; it’s a fairly modern building. I went down yesterday to draw it but it was raining and the paper deteriorated so I came home very depressed. I thought, ‘well I can’t draw or paint the Port of London Authority from eye,’ so I kept thinking and remembered that I had contacted Port of London Authority about the meaning of this yellow flag. They said that the flag is no longer needed because technology has taken over but that it used to mean ‘no disease on board.’ The idea came to develop the yellow square as a symbol for the end of COVID pandemic in Gravesend- to lift us up. Blackbirds can be a symbol of good things and a symbol of bad things. They are a reminder that we are always on the edge.”
