Family
"Never in our lifetime had family been thrown into sharper focus than during the pandemic. Art can help us explore who we miss, who we're shaped by and who we truly belong with.
There are a lot of different sorts of families. There are gay families, straight families, nuclear families, imaginary families, long lost families and constructed families. When we’re making art, we have to make decisions. Who am I going to draw? Who’s going to be in this picture? Who is my family? We construct a family as we construct an artwork about it. I think that’s a powerful thing to do.”
Allegra Gordon
Zoë Pyne
Cian McLoughlin
Julie Bennett
Suzanne Bull MBE
Guest Artist: Yinka Ilori MBE
Helping Hand, part of ‘If Chairs Could Talk’, 2015, Wooden chair with painted decoration
“There’s so much beauty in everyday objects. Especially chairs. We sit on a chair, we cry, we argue, we laugh. These are objects that we trust to hold our feelings or emotions. Being raised by Nigerian parents, colour was a huge part of my life. It’s very evident in my work. With Nigerian cultures, families always wear the same colour and pattern. Fabric can give you an identity. Colour gives you a sense of pride and a sense of belonging.”
Prabhneet Sondhi
Disjointed Family Portrait, Oil paint on canvas
“The concept of my painting was to explore the theme ‘personal space’. I was keen on the idea of people invading each other’s space and how they feel about it. As well as how they act in their surroundings. This led me to my subject matter: portraiture. I chose family, as they are close to me, and during lockdown their presence was more prominent.
Expanding on invasion, the idea relates to chaos. This flows throughout my painting through the disordered composition. This painting represents what the majority have been through: living on top of each other. There were times where I got completely irritated and frustrated. Holding on to the fact that I was surrounded by my family during this time helped me through.
Drawing and painting is so valuable to me. It gives me an outlet for when times get stressful. Online school, being stuck in the house and the repetitive daily walks; it was monotonous. Painting enabled me to express my feelings, let loose and free my mind. I painted a wide range of emotions which tell a story. Each interpretation will change for every viewer, as we all had different experiences.”
Harry Hill
Tree Hug, Video performance
“I was inspired by a piece by Marina Abramovic´. It seemed to me that hugging a tree with a photo of someone you weren’t able to hug due to lockdown, might be the next best thing.”
Anneka Rice
Family is Community, Watercolour on paper
“The word family is so loaded for me. I grew up not knowing grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Both my parents were secretive about their backgrounds. It’s left me with such a sense of yearning. Throughout my life I’ve created these tribes of people. I thought I’d do a frieze of some significant parts of my life. It’s been like 60 years of therapy! I realised my family was about community and people that I love.”
Grayson Perry: Chola Sculpture
Alan Healing the Wound, 2021, Bronze
“I’ve turned to my childhood teddy bear Alan Measles for inspiration. As a child, I projected a lot of stuff onto him. He became a kind of parent to me. I like to take Alan into different parts of world culture. I’ve been looking at amazing Chola bronzes from Southern India. I love the style. He’s a kind of Hindu deity mixed with a Christian reliquary Madonna and child. Alan the surrogate father goddess.”
Amelia Mullins
Comfort Blanket, Embroidery on cotton fabric, Courtesy of the artist
“Just before my wedding I was diagnosed with what is basically a premature menopause. It was devastating. I felt huge grief. A chance of a biological family had been taken away in a second. And then lockdown came and I needed to distract myself. I just started sewing little memories: how I was feeling, the people I missed, my family. An escape which became a place of comfort and gratitude and filled with hope and love.”
Philippa Perry: Family Table
Family Table, Coffee table with glazed ceramic tiles
“Families are far more than a mum and a dad and 2.4 children. They are a man and his cat, a group of friends living together, a lesbian couple. I tried to represent many different types and different atmospheres of family. The armchairs represent where family members once sat because death is a part of family life. Eilidh Brooker, my daughter’s partner, designed and made the table, so I’ve kept it all in the family.”
Boy George
The Family, Acrylic paint, beads, thread and sequins on canvas, Courtesy of the artist
“You’ve got your family family and then you’ve got your disco family. When I got on the train to the West End my world became more colourful and more bohemian. I’d never been anywhere really glamorous. We’d never eaten prawns or courgettes. We were quite a basic family. This is the family that I’ve created. My nightclub family. My fake family. My fellow weirdos. My fellow exhibitionists.”
David Bailey
Grayson Perry, Photograph, © David Bailey 2020. Kindly lent by the artist
Harry Rose
Ode to Phil Mitchell, Acrylic paint on canvas, Courtesy of the artist
“When thinking of family, Phil Mitchell stood out to me. My own family kept shouting ‘HE’S FAMILY’ in their best Phil Mitchell impression. Phil has a gay son in the show and I wanted him to become the embodiment of misplaced anger towards the LGBTQIA+ community. I am an openly queer man. My late father was accepting of my sexuality. My painting shows acceptance as well as past generations looking down
in anger and disgust.”
Andy Jeffrey
The Covid Captive, Acrylic paint on paper
“I was inspired by how well my mother-in-law coped during the first lockdown. Several of her friends passed away during this period. Being unable to pay her respects was incredibly distressing. This painting shows her looking longingly out of the window with her ‘essentials’ of life during that bleak time.”
Chloë Hänchen-Garner and Tom Hänchen
Joke Alphabet, Ink on paper
“My dad loved life. He brought humour into everything he did. He was famous for knowing a joke for every letter of the alphabet. My dad had lived with cancer for twelve years and had gone through a lot of pain. Last year, his health was deteriorating. I started to think about losing him. The thought of the void he would leave was unbearable. I had the idea to capture his spirit on a Joke Alphabet poster. It felt like I was preparing myself for what lay ahead. Me and my dad went through his collection of jokes and picked out our favourites. I sent family and friends a ‘joke pack’ containing a piece of card, a letter of the alphabet and a joke. I asked them to create a piece of artwork in any way they chose. Me and my dad felt very supported and loved through this. Although we couldn’t talk about death verbally we could through this. The following months were full of wonderful moments as the ‘joke alphabet letters’ arrived on my door mat. My dad sadly passed away on 1st November 2020.
But his spirit lives on in the Joke Alphabet! I feel a profound connection to my dad when looking at my dad’s artwork and the marks that he made, experiencing the interconnectedness of life and death.”
