Slightly unhinged | #2
How is iso going for you today?
Up until this week, I’ve been fine; grateful to have my basic human needs catered to, grateful my family and friends are okay. Yesterday however, I think I reached a new milestone: the losing-my-mind-a-little-bit milestone. Have you been there yet? Are you here with me?
For reasons still unknown to me, I spent most of the day in the grip of an internalised rampage. The kind that’s provoked when a series of mishaps or accidents take place in rapid and almost comical succession. Except mine wasn’t provoked by anything really, or at least anything justifiable.
And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to accept anything I experienced as good or worthy. Everything I looked at was ‘stupid’, and if you know me, you will know I don’t use the word stupid. The content of the breakfast news was ‘a farce’, my sports bra was suffocating and there was dust fucking everywhere!
On an even more infuriating note, the internet was breaking at regular intervals, I dropped a cat toy on my head, then panic-ate a Lindt bunny, all before 9.30.
After work, I went for a jog to shake off all the pent-up agitation, and it was heaven. When I came home, I set myself up for an online yoga class. Five minutes in, the internet broke again, a small mishap that undid any gains made on my walk. I texted a friend, this day is literally bullying me into submission, and then, I submitted.
I showered with the lights out, under the hottest water I could get. Then, I tore through the house, expelling the rug I blamed the dust on, chucking my suffocating bra in the bin and clearing out my WFH space, all while mumbling to myself, I’m not putting up with this! I topped off this slightly unhinged behaviour by putting on a fluffy bathrobe, lying on my couch with a glass of red in my hand. I just couldn’t bring myself to engage in anything meaningful, so I sat and stared into space, contemplating all the unknowns that none of us can control.
The end.
Making me feel better
If only my whole life could be as calming and kawaii as this GIF.
Reading / Listening / Watching
The power of cognitive diversity in building quality and quantity creative ideas, in the latest episode of Eat Sleep Work Repeat.
This article by Megan O’Grady in the New York Times about what we can learn from the art of past pandemics. I enjoyed her observations on how the activities designed to alleviate isolation only end up reminding us how separated we really are.
“When we ‘Zoom’, we connect along our metaphoric edges. We’ve existed in such grids for a while without really acknowledging it, one might argue, imprisoned in our small geometries of perspective. Grid life seems all too easy a metaphor for a society stripped bare, exposed for what it has become. But that’s the thing about the grid; live with it long enough and one forgets it’s there, until the next catastrophe.”
I am also reading some texts by the surrealists. I can’t think of any other art movement that can equip us for a time that is becoming increasingly surreal before our eyes. I’m going to share more about this next week!
Artwork of the Week (lead image)
Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures delight me endlessly, and have done for years. Anyone can make a One Minute Sculpture. And the more ridiculous they are, the better. This one, exhibited at the 2017 Venice Biennale, felt fitting as a reflection of my general mood and headspace yesterday, and therefore it is my leading image.
If you feel inspired to make one, please don’t condemn it to a life in the shadows. Why not email it to rachel.a.shun@gmail.com and I will add it to next week’s newsletter!