Socialising (Pandemic Diary series, no. 18) (2020)

Phlegm is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes installation, drawing, engraving and illustration. He is best-known for the large-scale murals he has created in urban spaces across the world. Pandemic Diary is a small-scale pen-and-ink series that conveys the artist’s emotions and experiences during the first UK lockdown, from March to July 2020. These drawings document his personal experiences and observations during this unprecedented moment in British life. Phlegm describes the powerful and banal aspects of the ‘new normal’ life in lockdown, illustrating the rapidly changing world many found themselves living in. The drawings address everything from the fear surrounding isolation to the comedy around social distancing and the absurdity of irrational hoarding, as well as the respect and gratitude felt for key workers who continued working throughout.

For Graves Gallery, the clear and precise narrative and melancholic nature of Pandemic Diary connects with many works in the collection, such as historic prints by Holbein, Dürer, Callot and Hogarth. This is the first major series by Phlegm that the museum has sought to acquire, as Sheffield Museums continues to strengthen the collection of drawings. Phlegm spent 15 years living in Sheffield, where his work spans several buildings across the city. He states that ‘Pandemic Diary was an unplanned reaction to this sudden threat and change in our lives. As a body of work it was an immersive and cathartic way of processing a world in flux. To have this very personal collection kept together and held in Sheffield couldn’t be more perfect. Sheffield is where I started out and found my voice as an artist and it will always feel like home.

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