Walking around your home

Looking for something fresh within the familiar

Nov 16, 2022

Hello again. What’s going on with the British weather right now? One minute you need sunglasses, the next minute you need fog lights and then the wind kicks up and blows you along the path. So if you’ve been staying indoors to escape the elements, this edition is for you.

Walking

A few years ago I injured my lower back and the pain completely floored me. My osteopath prescribed a combination of rest with short rounds of gentle exercise. And the exercise he prescribed was, of course, walking.

For the best part of a week I had to lay flat on my back for 30 minutes at a time, followed by 10 minutes of slow walking. Because I couldn’t really go anywhere, I took these walks inside my very tiny flat, which meant I was literally walking round in circles. Despite the pain, I got bored of this incredibly quickly so I found ways to make the walks more interesting.

I’d try imagining I’d never been inside my flat before and had come to view it for the first time – like an estate agent might. Or I mentally rearranged my furniture, ready to do the physical bit once I was able to do some heavy lifting again. Sometimes I just I hobbled around, noticing the chipped paint and cracks I’d been blissfully unaware of for years, resolving to do a bit of DIY once I was up for it.

But I had the most fun imagining my flat was an art gallery and I was at a private view – with a catch. Instead of looking at the pictures, photos and ornaments dotted around on the walls, shelves and tables, I reimagined everyday objects as groundbreaking works of art.

Was that a wonky loaf or a social commentary on the state of the food industry?

One person’s wonky sourdough is another’s work of art

Was I looking at bathroom tiles or a monochrome Mondrian from his earlier, lesser-known collections?

Abstract art or just a plain old bathroom wall?

Was I looking at a potato masher or a sculpture from an unknown artist on a fast track to winning the Turner Prize?

So your invitation this time is to walk around your home and imagine it’s an alternative art gallery. Pick the most unremarkable objects you can find and pretend they’re the most astounding art pieces ever created. You never know, maybe you’ll discover a lost Picasso or Monet.

Writing

I love galleries but I think some of the art descriptions are ridiculous. So for your writing exercise this time I invite you to channel your inner art curator and come up with a flowery and farcical description for an ‘artwork’ you found during your walk. Here are the things you might want to include:

Title and date of the piece
Artist’s name
Artist’s influences
Materials
Style or genre of art

I encourage you to be as playful and experimental as you can with this, so have a look at the Infinite Artwork Simulator or the artybollocks generator for a bit of absurdist inspiration.

As always, I hope you enjoy your walking and writing. And please share your art descriptions in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with.

Happy walking and writing,

Sarah