Jennifer Thoreson, Multidisciplinary Artist

Variations on a Quarantine (2020)

While under lockdown, I made an effort to channel my anxiety into small projects using the confines of my home and household objects.

For the series Covid Baby I scanned my five-year old's crayon drawings of the Covid-19 virus, which he was consistently drawing after seeing the image repeatedly on mainstream media. I created a digital pattern using his drawings and applied them to his baby clothes. Essential/Non-Essential address new terminology and associative language originating with the Covid-19 crisis.

In Retired Objects, I wrapped obsolete household objects with muslin strips, and carefully arranged them on hand-woven cloth, inside hand-built wooden boxes. I think of them each as exhausted objects, well-loved, imbued with touch, which served me or my family dutifully. The work poses questions about memory and objects, and how ordinary things become precious, and may even seem to exhibit human emotions in as they age and change over time.

In Ghost Fare I fabricated ordinary foods (bread and ground meat) from local sheep's wool, drawing a relationship between the scarcity of these items during lockdown, farming, and self-sufficient living.

Other photographs included here are home experiments and and exercises to occupy my anxious mind, using solely objects and the natural light from my domestic space while under quarantine.

Covid Pajamas, Covid Overalls, from the series Covid Baby, 2020

Non-essential, Essential, from the series Covid Baby, 2020

iPhone 3, from the series Retired Objects, 2020

Hairdryer, from the series Retired Objects, 2020

Scissors, from the series Retired Objects, 2020

Toast and Jam, from the series Ghost Fare, 2020

Ground Beef, from the series Ghost Fare, 2020

Whitewashed Toy Gun, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Whitewashed Trigger Hand, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Outside In, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Spinal Cord, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Watching a little TV, from the series Household Objects, 2020

White Pantry, from the series Household Objects, 2020

iSwitch, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Extra Hair, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Ponytail, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Sponge Cake, from the series Household Objects, 2020

Hair Cream, from the series Household Objects, 2020