8 Art Professionals on How They're Adapting to Isolation During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Manisha Gera Baswani, 'HOME', Handpicked feathers & Net

When people are confined to their homes, and the machine of the global economy comes to all but a screeching halt, art becomes a rare form of solace. Galleries are taking their exhibitions online; theatres are now broadcasting plays and musicals on web platforms; musicians are releasing their new music ahead of schedule and even streaming pre-recorded concerts. These beautiful, whimsical experiences are an opportunity for escape–they allow people to forget the anxieties of the world, for a short while.

Art also becomes a means of sharing experiences—the pandemic does not affect us all equally. Art reminds those who are lucky enough to have homes to be quarantined in, to remain employed and be financially stable—that there are many who are less fortunate. Art allows communities to engage with the world at large—it allows people a window into a world they would otherwise have no access to. Even memes and TikTok challenges—often crude, sometimes irreverent—serve as reminders that we are not alone in this bizarre, world-bending experience. All in all, the essentiality of art—which has always been in doubt—is on its way to becoming indisputable.

Monsoon Malabar reached out to art professionals – from artists, art directors, curators and writers – to discuss how the pandemic has influenced, affected, or changed their work, and how they are adapting to isolation. Here’s what they had to say:

Veerangana Solanki
Independent Curator & Programme Director, Space Studio, Baroda

I had planned on spending March and April catching up with some writing and research, since the past few months have been fairly crazy on the road. In a way, the lockdown has created a situation for no excuses to catch up with long pending writing and research. In terms of travels that were due, we had the Space Studio Summer Residency Program that was to begin in March, but now that the artists are working from home, we have shifted to forms of online programming. This is also a realisation of how much we can do online and how much we really need to be present in places. Specially when it comes to studio visits, It’s really not the same online, but that's how I've been spending my afternoons - virtual studio visits and portfolio reviews.

I think we really need to be more mindful and aware of how we are going to work on future exhibitions and programming - both in terms of content and scale, and this is perhaps a time to also revisit and reflect the process of what we refer to as sustainability and rethink the pace at which we are constantly doing.

Online Studio visits with Space Studio's Summer Residents. Image courtesy Space Studio, Baroda

Online PORTFOLIO REVIEW with Space Studio's Summer Residents. Image courtesy Space Studio, Baroda

Siddhartha V. Shah
Curator of Indian & South Asian Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA

The way I see this is that we have been told to go inside. We have literally been told to stay indoors and stay in our homes. Figuratively, I think that this is a time to go inside and to really practice – for those of us who have a spiritual practice of some sort – and to re-evaluate who we are, what is important, what we need in life and what we are willing to work towards and fight for. I am doing lots of yoga, meditation and cooking, and I am spending time with my beautiful cat, Poona. I have video meetings all day but then I see friends all over the world. It’s like time and space have completely disappeared in some way. I had lunch in Scotland a few days ago and I had a yoga class in Toronto last week.

At the Peabody Essex Museum, we have the biggest and most important collection of modern Indian art outside of India. However, we are not in New York City, Los Angeles or London but in Salem, Massachusetts – a town of 40,000 people. My experience curating modern art is that sometimes only a limited number of people understand the ideas, language and concepts. My job with the museum collection, and in a small community like ours, is to make the art accessible and to help people see their own lives and experiences reflected back in the art from a country that most of them have never been to, and a culture that they don’t really know.

I'm still able to use social media to share objects from our collection and to start conversations. But this is really an opportunity to use art and beauty to inspire people, not talk about heady ideas or go on and on about theorists and concepts. This is a time when people need to connect with beauty and meaning. They need to feel like they are being seen and valued. Maybe it's about an artist who experienced something difficult in life or an artwork that can be a source of inspiration in a particular way. I think that my role as a curator right now is really about the people, not about the art. It’s about helping the people value art and culture at a time when we actually need it very much.

One of the hardest things about this is that my parents are in Florida right now and I can’t be with them. I am just speaking to them everyday and making sure that I tell them how much I love them and appreciate them and I am absorbing all the love that they are shining back at me. My advice to everybody is to reach out to the people you love and tell them how much you care about them.

Rekha Rodwittiya, The Shedding of Innocence, 1993. Gift of the Chester & Davida Herwitz Collection, Peabody Essex Museum.

Zain Ali
Art Director & Creative Consultant, London / Lahore

All of us are living in this collective uncertainty and we don’t know what’s on the road ahead of us. Rather than find answers amongst the chaos, I’ve tried to focus more on what I can do in the present. It’s a challenge for all of us to find in our homes all that we found beyond it but like anything new and unfamiliar, it’s a day by day process and a creative challenge!

To be honest - I’m just caught up in a web of existential questions! I’m very privileged to have all I need to stay safe and healthy whilst we see so many grave global inequities exacerbate from all of this. I feel pressure about what not only my role is, but how we change such embedded cultures and systems. Maintaining a community is something I’m really focusing on - it helps me reflect on these questions with people I love and respect everyday - who we’ll be after this, what this means for our careers, where we want to live, what our values are.

I haven’t spent time at home [London] like this since I left for the big wide world. It’s shown me how much I’ve changed coming back to a space I last lived in as a teenager, and also how much my parents have aged. I’ve always wanted to learn to cook as beautifully as my mum does, so I make sure to take out a part of my day to cook with her and I end the day by drinking turmeric milk with her and dad. Creating rituals like this has helped me keep a routine and purpose. Physical space plays a great deal in defining my headspace and concentration. We can no longer associate an office with work, a gym with exercise, or a home with the end of a day so I’m trying to separate the spaces in my home for different tasks, which helps me to feel a sense of variety and structure in my day.

Henri Matisse, Goldfish, 1911-1913

Radhika Iyengar
Freelance Journalist, New Delhi

I think the lockdown has redefined almost everything in our lives. The normal has been redefined, our relationship with the world has been redefined, our relationship with shadow-lined walls and the silent windows of our homes has been redefined. My balcony has become both a refuge and a window to the world. I play with my dog, and bake cookies in an oven as old as my parents’ marriage.

Days have become longer; time seems to be broken. This is a good time for me to focus and write my first non-fiction book, which I have been doing. However, it could be that the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring has made my mind even more restless. Art and history interest me, and so, when I come across fascinating stories behind certain artworks, I pen them in my notebook and then share it on my Instagram page. Those who nurture common interests enjoy these anecdotal nuggets of history. 

That question of how my role as a writer is redefined during this crisis requires deep interrogation. I’m journaling more these days and documenting the lives of my family members – as we all live through this crisis together – through photography. I think we owe it to ourselves to become the chroniclers of our time and commit to building a truthful account of collective memory. This is history. We are living in and making history.  

This period has to be recorded – not only through numbers and statistics published in newspapers, but through personal narratives. It’s a crisis that has and will go on to see countless deaths. It is flipping civilised societies on their heads, triggering mass hysteria and letting people loose on the streets to panic buy or prompt mass migration. It’s redefining social interaction, where we are embracing virtual spaces and doing away with human contact (something so intrinsic to us). As a people, we need the human touch that has the power to heal, which gives us a sense of intimacy, of love and togetherness. Everything that held us together is falling apart. As Yeats said, “The centre cannot hold”.

I find cooking therapeutic, so I busy myself in the kitchen in these times. I’m re-reading ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; I’m watching 'The Loudest Voice’; and I'm listing to CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction (with Dr. Sanjay Gupta).

Rhinocerus (Rhinoceros), Albrecht Dürer, 1515. Image courtesy British Museum

Waswo X. Waswo
Photographer & Writer, Udaipur / Bangkok

Like many of us, I've not left my apartment for over three weeks. Udaipur is in fact doing better than other areas, as, at the time of writing this, we've only had one confirmed case (and that was quickly quarantined). My very sweet assistant Jay Prakash is still coming twice a week to bring me groceries and do a bit of cooking. We're allowed to go to the grocery store in the early mornings, and so far they have thankfully stayed stocked. The implications of this epidemic cause us to think about our biological fragility, and the fragility of the many social supply chains that we depend upon. 

Immediately after the lockdown I began a series on my YouTube channel "Evil O" that is called Coronavirus ARTpocalypse: The Art World Responds. The series is doing well, with appearances by artists like Seema Kohli and Ravi Agarwal, and gallerists and curators such as Nupur Dalmia and Annapurna Garimella. The last episode gained over 1000 views, and both participants and audience just keep getting more and more involved. We're all locked down, so I'm also getting calls from people wanting me to appear on other online resources, such as Shalini Passi's MASH Podcast, which was great fun to be on.    

Since I normally photograph at my village studio, which is a half-hour drive from my home, I have been really missing it these days. I desperately want to sit on the studio roof and share some whiskey with the family that I rent from, as that is always a highlight of any day. So instead, I find myself digging through old works and discovering things that I had forgotten about. It's a great time for organisation, and of course, the miniature paintings keep going as my collaborating artists are now all working from home. 

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I watch quite a bit of YouTube! That is one reason I decided to begin my own channel, which is now one year old. I also listen to audiobooks on Audible. I page through the many art books that I have. To locked down young photographers, I guess I’d say that this is is a great time for you to do your research. Develop some concepts and research them as best you can online. One day the lockdown will be lifted, and if your prepare, you'll know exactly what to do once set free.

Waswo X. Waswo & R. Vijay, The Deep Green of Possession

Manisha Gera Baswani
Artist, New Delhi

I have my studio at home and therefore I am doing what I always do – painting. Life hasn’t changed all that much. On the contrary, my creative juices are flowing as I immerse myself each day in my creative abode. While I do that, cooking is also turning out to be a bonding activity for us as a family. We do our respective work during the day and cook together in the evenings, followed by savouring what we have cooked as we watch concerts and productions that are now being generously streamed for free.

This situation has indeed caused a lot of suffering to many and I realise  that I am writing from a rather privileged position. I count my blessings and feel gratitude everyday. I visualise that our earth is healing. It’s palpable when I look out of my studio window. I see birds that I’ve never seen before. They hop in to drink water from the earthen pots that I have placed on my balcony. I see the trees swaying happily as they breathe clean air. At home I have a big aviary on my balcony. The birds are making babies galore. There are many mama birds sitting endlessly on eggs waiting for them to hatch and as many baby budgies making sweet sounds that is music to our ears through the day. I am surrounded by my loved ones and that to me is my most important belonging during the lockdown.

Manisha Baswani at home in Delhi

Ayesha Kapadia
Freelance Artist & Visual Director, Mumbai

The lockdown has hit me as hard as it's hitting all of us right now, specially the freelance industry. Along with my co-founders Mihir and Manojna at Contracts For Creators, we've launched The C4C Creative Directory with the hope of helping talented freelancers to reach potential projects. That's one way of dealing with it, by being useful to the community. On a more personal front, I've been working on weeding out processes and energies that serve as distractions and pull my focus on building a discipline around practices that bring me joy because that joy is translated in my work. As an innately curious and hyper imaginative person, it's natural for my brain to be pulled in many directions, and I really enjoy that dance. For now, I'm learning how to put the horse blinders on. Still dancing though!

As for my role, it’s not so much of a redefinition as much as it's an evolution of thought. To be able to strengthen that bond between internal thought and external practice is an exercise that needs to be done daily, is what I've discovered. There have been plenty of discoveries for me over this time of isolation. Like a little treasure hunt of sorts, and chancing upon sparkly presents and precious treasure, that I'm carefully unwrapping and learning how to use. My love for the written word has been one of the gems.

There's so much to do! As a child, my external environment really pushed me inward and because that's where I've resided for most of my formative years, I've built a beautiful imaginary world of my own. It's very easy for me to live in both worlds. My work has been a manifestation of my internal world into reality. I've been writing and painting a lot more than usual now. I've also embarked on a journey of reading Angel cards for strangers and friends on the internet. Also, being silly with my friends really helps keep the spirits sparkly. Stay curious and find ways of fearlessly feeding your curiosity!

Illustration for TWP by Ayesha Kapadia

Vyoma Venkatraman
Manager of Public Relations, Brooklyn Museum, New York City

I've been working from home for a little over 4 weeks now. Like most people in New York, I didn't have a home office or much space to work with, so it was challenging at first. I had to get a desk and chair and carve out a comfortable space, which helped. Technical difficulties have slowed down productivity. Museums tend to operate on older systems, and, as cash-strapped nonprofits, they don’t often have the luxury of using money to solve problems. As we found ourselves in a rapidly evolving crisis, there was immediate work to be done in terms of developing institutional messaging. There was also initial worry about my role at the museum because so much of what we do as publicists depends on having exhibitions and programs running in an open, accessible building. However, as we've settled into this new normal and expanded our digital content offerings, work has taken shape. There are also a lot of questions about a post-coronavirus world and what the future would hold in terms of our jobs so we have a regular video call schedule and we Slack daily to help alleviate any tension over this.

I wouldn't say that my role has been redefined but I do think that things have changed, which might be stating the obvious. This time has called for us to step up and provide a sense of direction within our organisations and how we are communicating about a very tough and complicated time. For the first time in the Brooklyn Museum's history, we are only able to reach out to our community through digital means; the need for content has never been greater. As a result, there is a lot of pressure on the marketing and communications team. It's an "all hands on deck" type of situation.

I've been practicing yoga in the mornings, cooking, baking, and making cocktails! Having a routine and wearing real clothes during the workday, even when I'm not on Zoom calls, helps me stay sane. I'm finding that creating things (food, art, writing) keeps my spirits up. I impulse-bought a ukulele and time flies when I'm learning how to play a song. I'm also staying in touch with friends and family. I recently read ‘Educated’ by Tara Westover and ‘Three Women’ by Lisa Taddeo, which I highly recommend. I have a long list of true crime podcasts: Dr. Death, Atlanta Monster, You Must Remember This (the season called Charles Manson's Hollywood is phenomenal) are some highlights. I love listening to the Spotify playlist "Lo-Fi Beats" while I work and cook. It's great music but also lets me concentrate.

Outside Vyoma Venkatraman's home in New York City