Crucible is a fortyfivedownstairs group exhibition responding to the triumphs and tribulations that the artistic community faced during the 2020-21 pandemic. Bringing together ten artists, the exhibition explores the spectrum of effects that the pandemic had on artistic practices.

For two years, the world – especially those of us in Melbourne – was confronted by challenges during the pandemic. Thoughts of vaccine hesitancy, the spread of misinformation, and extended lockdowns had severe psychological consequences.

The effect of the pandemic on the visual arts community was similar. Artists faced many unprecedented interruptions – studio spaces were closed, exhibitions were postponed or cancelled, access to materials was halted, and many had loved ones to care for. The effect on artists varied widely; isolation encouraged frustrated artmakers to escape reality by looking inwards and focusing on their artistic practice. New techniques emerged and were developed, new mediums tried and tested, and different landscapes of the imagination were explored. Artists took the opportunity to reflect on past work and reconsider it in a new context. They found togetherness through collaborative projects with one another, developing our ideas about community, love, and the sustaining principles of a kinder world – a compassion that unites us in uncertain times.

Out of the pandemic emerged art founded on resilience, humour, absurdity, and the celebration of life. Not only had we found hope through the consumption of art – in music, books, and media – artists channelled their survival into and through their creative endeavours. This exhibition is a visual acknowledgement of the beacons of light, gems of hope, and human strength that we now irrevocably share in our collective conscience.
-Fortyfivedownstairs

These works are selected from my previous exhibition ‘A Stream Of Consciousness: One Year Later’. They are framed together to match a theme within their grouping, creating a mental mapping of the thoughts and feelings I was going through within the year I created them. The body of work started to fight my own depression and bad habits, as being in lockdown without creating art was causing misery. ‘A Stream Of Consciousness: One Year Later’ all resides within a universe I have created. The universe is forever expanding as my artistic practice continues, with every new work taking place within the same universe.
The body of work consisted of 365 individual works that were created daily and were mostly created intuitively. The pieces were created during a time when Melbourne was going in and out of lockdowns, with constant changes to restrictions. This resulted in many of the artworks containing themes of mental health, social issues and escapism as well as many other themes.
The first framed grouping contains some of the earliest works within the series. They were an optimistic start and contained worlds and characters from within my universe and are visually bright. The beginning of this body of work was initially exciting and immediately uplifting.
The second grouping represented a much darker experience throughout the pandemic. These pieces were created during days where my mental health was not at its best, with the motif of the pill representing antidepressants. These works are also mostly subconsciously created. Whatever was on my mind at that moment was intuitively placed and collaged onto pieces of paper, with other pandemic related themes being painted and drawn on top.
The framed set of 9 contain much like the first set, contain characters, worlds and relics from my universe. This set is themed around escapism. Creating artworks with no direct link to the reality around me was a helpful tactic to keep myself sane during a tough time.
The last work titled ‘The Fight’ was created very close to the end of the 365 days. ‘The Fight’ is a piece created amid frustrating thoughts of vaccine hesitancy and the spread of misinformation. At this point of the body of work I was so physically exhausted from the consistency and amount of work created that the title ‘The Fight’ felt very suiting.
These collections of works were all created at different times during a pandemic. As the year went on more disruptions and uncertainties arose, causing many of these works to change in styles and colours while still being related.