'As this show is titled disCONNECT I wanted to show how it feels like to be an isolated individual in these times.' - Adam Neate (2020)
Adam Neate uses the original window blinds of the Victorian townhouse of Schoeni Projects London to create two artwork series, Red Portraits and The Show Must Go On. Schoeni Projects shipped the window blinds to his studio in Sao Paolo while he was in lock-down and back to London after he finished reviving the discarded blinds as his canvas.
The lone torturous figures painted in Indian ink and spray paint in the Red Portraits series bear the extreme isolation and anxiety related to the pandemic, creating a contrast to the ‘positive propaganda’ texts in The Show Must Go On. The Show Must Go On serves to mark the moment the project was confirmed to take place; at a time when around the globe there was so much uncertainty about the future because of the upheaval caused by the pandemic, Neate was inspired by this truism quote in an email sent by the curator. From working in a moment of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic to the actual exhibition, there is a complex emotional space between his works and the Victorian townhouse of Schoeni Projects – disconsolation and time-frozen introspection in lock-down. That is ‘how it feels like to be an isolated individual in these times’ (Adam Neate, 2020).
