On March 25 we went into lockdown. We were confined to spaces not necessarily designed for constant occupation. In living spaces not designed as work spaces we did our heads in somedays.

Around us public spaces were closed. Art spaces closed. The Auckland Art Fair went digital. Exhibitions were cancelled. Tours were put on furlough. The money stopped coming in. The wage subsidy started.

We were forced into staying in. The internet became a way of getting out. A way of seeing friends and ‘working’.

In the first run of this residency the #houseboundartclub @artspaceaotearoa offered a diversion, a link into something outside of ourselves. Make something. Make something else. Make something, it’s how we can deal with this. We can make it into something else.

Now we can get out. Now things are returning to what they were like before March 25. We can go to openings, we be in the same spaces as the art.

Now that we can get out internet can give us us a way to stay in our practices. To reconnect, weirdly with the ideas around our practice.
There will be a series of interviews some pre-recorded and some live, conversations with artists, educators, gallerists, each person with a story about working through this weirdest of times.

Scheduled for the coming week are:

Kimberley Annan and Antonio Bakhur discussing the exchanges between live performance and the virtual spaces of the internet.
Iokapeta Magele Suamasi, talking about art education and community projects.
Ema Tavola talking art economics and the presentation of work in covid-19 economics.

Conversations with recent arts graduates, artists setting out building a career in the arts now in the covid-19 economic (un)reality.

houseboundartclub @artspaceaotearoa will be back with another series of art tasks, posted each day.