Over the last few days, like everyone else in the UK, I felt a shift in the narrative in our collective Covid 19 experience. The staged, strange and stuttering reanimation of our economy had begun to see holidays booked, unruly hair tamed and pints pulled once again. It was in this atmosphere of cautious optimism that I organised the transportation and return of a resin sculpture from a foundry in the Calder Valley, Yorkshire who had kindly stored it for me for five years. It arrived back this Thursday afternoon to my studio in Granton, a sculpture of a life size Indian Elephant. At the same time I was looking forward to visiting the same valley the following Friday but a different foundry to check over the cast of a new sculpture for a private client. I had a hotel booked and trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park lined up as well, my first departure out of the city of Edinburgh in over four months. In the intervening hours the UK Government announced new restrictions in the North of England including the Calder Valley. The general national mood seemed changed, expectations were significantly lowered as I went through the process of calling to cancel hotel bookings and meetings, it took me right back to mid March.
I have always been a consumer of news, in these Covid times I have probably upped it. I know its probably unhealthy but I am compelled tune into this historical narrative. At the same time of this recently announced regional UK lockdown the global media rotate dire predictions of global economic damage and generational blowback, the scale of it is hard to take in.
The Foundry in Halifax went ahead with breaking out the casting and sent me some footage of the event, the client remains committed, we are planning the installation this month. People want to be part of something, we must do what we can.
