UK Lockdown Stay-at-home order arrives with vibrant hues of blue and yellow ochre tones
For the frist time in living memory (AT LEAST OURS) the people of the UK gathered around a simple set of collective principles to make change happen “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”. The lockdown of the UK was announced on 23 March 2020 by the Prime Minister with measures to mitigate the spread of a virus and to protect the community. It included wide-ranging restrictions on freedom of movement, enforceable in law, under a stay-at-home order which was said would last for at least twelve weeks (we did warn anyone who would listen, how silly it would be for people to believe them). The mood was strangely tinged with a late twentieth century analogue feeling. The absence of people, cars and movement was just what you might imagine waking up in a dystopia horror novel might feel and look like. The lack of people in the photographs is the most shocking memory and to see (or not see) such a high level of panic and acquiescence was astonishing and scary in equal measure. We had underestimated, really naively the sheer level of fear around death and dying the collective psyche had been sheltering from the light of their thoughts. Some are calling it the Great Awakening. Let’s hope so.
IN PICTURES — The streets of Norwich on the first day of the UK Lockdown.
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ABOUT STUDIO GRRR
Hiya, we are Glen & Rebecca mischievously-led married couple with a shared love of books, drawing, colour, pattern and stories.
We make Art, Design Book Covers and Tell Stories.
For thirty years we have been Artists, Designers, Educators, Public Speakers, Creative Nomads and Heritage Crafts People.
Nice to meet you.
We believe creativity has an important role in our society and stories in the form of art, design and writing provide a vital gateway to our continued education and open doors to the imagination of others. At their best stories can challenge the way we view world and creativity gives these crucial ideas form and permanence. For thirty years we have found and lost, read, watched and listened to many fairy tales, folk-stories, discovered ancient symbols and thought about the reality of things (we believe stories are the orienting structures of our lives and language shapes reality).
Our artists books, paintings, journals, street art, pamphlets and zines have been exhibited at Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Leeds City Art Gallery, Hotel Maria Kapel (NL), The Enschede Academy of Visual Arts (NL), East Gallery (Norwich), Ruskin Gallery (Cambridge), Permanent Gallery (Brighton) Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico), Manchester Craft and Design Centre, K Gallery (California) SHOWROOM (Austria), Bureau Gallery (Manchester), PrintROOM’s AmsterdamZineJam and The Anti Design Festival (London)
DESIGN & COMMERCIAL WORK
We currently focus on book cover design and editorial based projects for independent and commercial publishers, research departments, universities, cultural organisations, academics and artisan makers. We have recently completed projects funded by The National Centre for Writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich University of the Arts, The Lithuanian Culture Institute, Ministry of Culture Taiwan, Pro Helvetia, LTI Korea and The Nippon Foundation.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP IN ARTS EDUCATION
Glen has been working in the Creative Industry for over thirty years and has been a Leading Design Educator for over twenty years. He has been an Educator to some of the most influential Graphic Designers and Notorious Creative Leaders around today and has taught students from all over the world. He has developed a deep understanding for mentoring designers which empowers and celebrates individuality and fosters a critical approach to creativity through curiosity, play and discovery. He is course leader for a unique rabble-rousing bunch of story-tellers on the BA (Hons) Design for Publishing and BA (Hons) Graphic Design Programmes at Norwich University of the Arts.
WORDS ART PHOTOGRAPHY By Glen & Rebecca (aka Studio GRRR)
Words are reproduced without permission and published as a matter of public interest.
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BLOG AND STORIES
Our Blog is a curated collection of articles, stories, reprints, photographic essays, conversations and inspriation written for the curious minds of analogue people living in a digital world. Through our life’s journey we stumble through layered narratives found in naturally occurring intersections between the metaphysical realm, and terrestrial landscape, collecting spell fragments from a cast of unlikely collaborators.
Angels, demons, gods, ancestors, aliens tell of a bizarre world brimming with legacy broadcast media, music, philosophy, literature, fictional characters, and the simple truth of everyday life and death.
From this confused debris we conjure and construe interconnecting polychromic stories (we think stories and light are the orienting structures of our lives) about art, creative practice, communication theory, how language shapes our reality, mental and physical health, comedy, music, the politics of bullshit and lashings of esoteric flim-flam.
