Like many of us, multidisciplinary artist Frances Goodman has spent a lot of time within the confines of her own home since March earlier this year. Forced to utilise the resources at her disposal, the works that she has created for her newest solo exhibition, Uneventful Days, are in many ways restricted by the disruptions of lockdown – limited access to materials, isolation from people, and the four walls of her home studio.

Yet, despite being borne of limitation, the pieces for Uneventful Days don’t take the inconveniences of the pandemic as their fulcrum. In Bodies in Lockdown, a series of new sequin paintings, figures in various states of undress are presented in all their resplendent imperfection. Given shelter-in-place instructions and social distancing etiquette, the source images for the series had to be obtained in a different way than usual: In an effort to seek collaboration in isolation, and rather than photographing them herself, Goodman asked participants to provide her with self portraits that responded to their perceived relationship with their bodies during lockdown, at a time when they are no longer deemed safe or strong.

Interviews conducted over Zoom allowed contributors to explain, in their own words, why they chose to participate in the project, to represent themselves in such a revealing and candid manner. The images Goodman received were anything but vulnerable or defenceless – rich, full-colour, graphic, and self-assured portraits flooded into her inbox, each one destined for a large-scale interpretation in glittering, plastic sequins. Forming a departure from the studied poses of previous sequin paintings, Bodies in Lockdown presents selfies as seduction, selfies as high art, selfies as protest. Both ordinary and one of a kind, these are representations that are simultaneously rooted in idleness and agency, in the spirit of body positivity and no fucks given. They provide a glimpse into the lives and mindsets of those who offered them, at a time when they have the spare hours in uneventful days to reflect.

Faye Janet Jackson