庄盈盈 (Yingying Zhuang) ‘Relationship’ was the winner of the Painting category in 'The View from Here'
Art competition showcases life in lockdown
6 May 2020
The View from Here features paintings, drawings and photography from young artists in China
Life in lockdown through the eyes of young artists in China has been revealed by an international art competition.
Manchester School of Art partnered with ACG International Art Education earlier this year to host ‘The View from Here’ competition, in solidarity with Chinese art and design students impacted first by Coronavirus (COVID-19) social distancing restrictions.
Students were asked to submit drawings, photography and paintings that expressed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and of social distancing measures in their homes and neighbourhoods.
The responses give a powerful insight into the personal and community stories of life under the Coronavirus in China during January.
The images were completed at the height of the Coronavirus’s impact in the country, but before it had been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.
Dave Griffiths, Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University said: “The responses give a powerful insight into the personal and community stories of life during the Coronavirus pandemic.”
The winner of the Drawing category is 周思嘉 (Sijia Zhou) for ‘One World, Two Mothers’. According to competition judges, “this narrative illustration sensitively expresses the parallel cares and concerns of a doctor working with Covid-19 patients, and her child at home.” Special mention was also given to 易欣 (Xin Yi) for ‘Transformation’, which depicts a global fight against a strange viral attack that is born from social progress.
季子惟 (Ziwei Ji) was victorious in the Photography category for ‘The 52nd Afternoon at Home’, “a fabulously composed portrayal of time passing in confined domestic space.” Special mention was given to 李烨 (Ye Li) for ‘Still’, which “evokes the eerie quiet and everyday life of people living in isolation.”
The responses give a powerful insight into the personal and community stories of life during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Finally, 庄盈盈 (Yingying Zhuang) ‘Relationship’ is the winner of the Painting category. The image “frames a fragment of family time from an outside perspective, suggesting domestic life is both destabilised and becoming closer due to the crisis.”黄明杰、刘一凡 (Mingjie Huang & Yifan Liu) was also noted for ‘Gaze’, a series of four digital portraits of people fighting the virus - the observations and hopes of a soldier, doctor, worker and teacher.
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Click on the gallery above to view other competition entries.
Davina Wang, from ACG, said: “Through this competition, art and design students examined and explored ways of showing their personal response to this subject through different visual media. It is great to see how they use their creativity to demonstrate it.”
