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"#QuARTantine 2020" | by multidisciplinary theatre-maker, Simone Cottrell.
There are three reasons why I started #quARTantine2020 :
1. I get bored easily and needed to see what all was in my closets while being sequestered for God knows how long.
2. I needed to do art that would be for pure entertainment, but that's not how my brain works. I have noticed that my self-confidence regarding my physical appearance was waning. My partner died in December 2018 and when you don't hear "You're beautiful" everyday, that silence becomes painfully loud after awhile. (Thankfully he wrote me a list of why he thought I was beautiful before he passed.) I've been trying to find different ways to feel strong in my body, despite the fluctuations of weight gain and loss during grief. Boga has helped out a lot, but then came "the 'rona" and gym time became limited. I thought about when I was a kid with my sisters and how obsessed we were with playing mannequin. It definitely helped that our mother (Mak in Khmer) made clothes, so we had plenty of scraps and random knick knacks to model with while contorting our bodies this way and that to pose for the invisible camera.
I took those memories as inspiration for the #quARTantine2020 series. I can only use what I currently have in my home to re-imagine classic paintings of women and to use no special equipment and as little filter as possible. I'm learning with my body that almost all classic paintings are of white women whose bodies and especially face shapes are not like mine. It takes about 30 - 45 minutes and most of it is spent learning and un-learning the poses (some of which are just ridiculous and you know that a man painted it). Eventually I find my body's way of wanting to move for the image and I accept it. I choose the image that brings me the most joy and drop that baby into the Instagram.
3. I'm horrible with dates, so consider this series my public journal of keeping up with how many days I've been held up at home.
Enjoy!
She | Her | Hers
FOLLOW ALONG | with Simone on Instagram. SIMONE ON INSTAGRAM .
Visit Simone's Website SIMONECOTTRELL.COM.
