Dear Drap-Art Friends,

This week’s artists from our Call for confined artists are John French and Verónica Moragas.

Verónica Moragas is a photographer. Her personal work revolves around consumer society, the generation of waste, ecology and tangible and intangible heritage.

During the early days of the state of alarm, the bewilderment generated by the news about the pandemic, the forced confinement, and the uncertainty she was experiencing, led her to reflect on the uncertain future that awaits humanity. This reflection resulted in a series of photographs she took with materials she had at home, she named Uncertain futures.

Uncertain futures evokes a dystopian future, where characters walk without a specific direction, in search of a future. Turning them in some way into climate migrants, forced to move in search of a better place to live.

This series makes us ask ourselves collectively about what the world will be like if we do nothing to change things. Where will we live? How will we live? Where will our pace of life and the feeling of impunity with which we live take us? What if we don’t become aware and do something to reverse climate change?

A photograph of this series has been chosen for the image of our Call for artists for Drap-Art’20 Festival.

Our second artist is John French. He grew up in Melbourne, Australia, but has lived in Barcelona for over a decade. In the 1980’s he did a toolmaking apprenticeship in Melbourne; in 1985 he moved to Europe where he saw for the first time works by modern painters and started to draw and paint himself. He worked as an artist full-time from 1992 to 2000 and has had over twenty solo exhibitions in the UK, Spain and Australia. Since the 1980’s, he has been closely involved with environmental and human rights campaigns, using his art to support the work of many NGO’s and community groups. He currently works as a teacher and freelance creative in Poblenou, Barcelona.

He makes art because “if I didn’t my life would be impoverished or unfulfilled in some way. I rarely show my work to anyone but when I do, I’m always happy if people relate to it or enjoy it.”

He reflects upon confinement saying: “During lockdown I constantly listened to the BBC World Service and local media to keep informed. My Mum who lives in Melbourne died in April and from my room I watched her funeral online. Making art gave me a break from the new normality, it was like time out and allowed me to go to a different mind space. These collages added value to my life and once I finished one, I’d store it in a presentation book. I had a lot of materials, paper tape and spare cutting blades, when I ran out of glue, I resorted to Blu Tack. Since then, some normality has returned but still I am unable to travel home and clean up my mother’s stuff”

We hope you enjoy the artists’ work and stay tuned for the upcoming reviews! 

Thank you