Thompson Hall: Lockdown Legacy

Online Exhibition

At the end of April 2020, Thompson Hall was awarded an Unlimited Micro-Commission, a small grant for selected Unlimited alumni to be spent towards creating work or supporting existing practices during the COVID-19 period.

Lockdown Legacy was an exhibition of work created over the period 4 May – 10 July 2020 as a result of the Unlimited Commission. During this time, Thompson was isolating at home with his Mother and younger brother and taking part in weekly 1:1 Zoom conversations with his Artist Facilitator, Lisa Brown.

Whilst working on Lockdown Legacy, Thompson was interviewed by Ali Eisa at Autograph Gallery as part of their “Call to Care” video series. Thompson talks about how important his art practice has been in helping him to process and express his thoughts and feelings about this unprecedented moment in time.

Phase 1: Lockdown

Phase 2: Easing Lockdown

Phase 3: The New Normal

Thompson explains these thoughts behind Lockdown Legacy :

“It has been a huge honour to be given a micro commission by Unlimited to create work from my home during lockdown. I chose to make my work about the coronavirus outbreak and to represent my own views of what was happening during the outbreak as it was all I could think about.

But I have to say that making the work in my bedroom felt a bit strange as I’m not used to working from home and being at home so much. So I started making the work by doing some research, by watching the news and listening to the radio for ideas. I usually buy a newspaper but haven’t been doing that.

Because I have a small bedroom I had to make work much smaller than I am used to and with different materials. I used A3 paper, coloured pencils, oil pastels and chalk pastels. I liked working with most of these but I tried the chalk pastels but it just left me and my bedroom covered in dust!

I also had the chance to use the iPad for the first time to do my research and send emails to Lisa (Brown) and Sheryll (Catto) and use Zoom to have one to one sessions with Lisa to share my pieces and talk about my ideas with her.

I feel having the project has helped me cope as I feel like my life is on hold. I am beginning to feel a bit more safe about going out but am having to relearn everything which has become quite frustrating at times and made me not sure if it is safe to go outside; seems like I am going to have to trust doing my normal things again.

I would like to thank at this point Sheryll and ActionSpace for making it possible to do the commission and Lisa for all of her support throughout the process.”

Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council England.