Laura nelson
interview with a vaulter
April 2020
Slightly later today with our INTERVIEW WITH A VAULTER
This sunny afternoons interview with Laura
How's it going?
Overall it’s going good.
The sun is shining like a spring season in a country of a more southerly geographical location. We have a house to live in. Food to eat. Amazing teenage children to entertain us. The towpath is on our door-step and our neighbours stop and chat when they see us, which is nice because before everyone mostly ignored each other.
We are lucky with our circumstances. It’s hard not to feel so when you consider how other peoples' new realities may be now. Despite the fact that we have both lost our self-employed incomes, we are finding ways to sccccccrrrrrrape by. Yellow labels are in. New clothes are out. I’m not expecting to see any help from the government self employment fund until June at the earliest. Which is a long gap. I find myself comparing different countries' responses to people's loss of income. Within Europe, Germany is usually the winner. Do they value the arts the most?
What is your living situation? Do you have outside space or are you living in an underground bunker?
HAHA! We don’t live in a bunker. We live in a beautiful small ex-council house that we have decorated and made home over the years. It comes with a disproportionately large corner garden in which we have planted fruit trees, veg and flower beds and built a greenhouse from stained glass windows. We are really privileged to have this outdoor space and to be close to the towpath, to nature.
I have been having a lot of anxiety dreams. These mostly centre around the house and our living situation and our life security. Security is a word, previously mistrusted, that I've started using a lot now. Our landlord (who is sound btw) intends to sell our house at some stage. We would love to buy it. But now - All of that seems unlikely and this idea of the loss of our home is haunting me. Anxiety is a thing for me now.
How has the pandemic affected your arts practice?
I’ve worked in the Arts in N.I for ten years…
Pre Corona I was focused on training myself to be a Sign-painter. I had been practicing and learning from masters and getting good. I had picked up a few commissions. It was the beginning of something. I love it.
Now I am still able to practice at home but I find my focus is short. I have always been a procrastinator/had a zillion projects on the go at the same time but now I’m finding it harder to get practice done. This sense of failure on my part helps feed into the anxiety.
I am spending more time online which serves mostly as a distraction. I have enrolled in a couple of courses.
I’m still slowly making, but it is hard at home. Our house at times feels like a slider puzzle, fulfilling so many functions and each activity cleared away and furniture moved so that the next can take place.
How are you coping with the temporary closing of the Vault?
I miss my own studio space a lot. The Vault is a massive lifeline for so many of us. It’s more than affordable studio space. It’s a place full of artists and creatives from a huge and diverse range of disciplines, practices, backgrounds, nationalities. It's a beautiful force. It's a social cohesion. Its inspiration. It's a beacon of hope. It's a flourishing and strong community. It is HUGELY missed. We stay in touch online. I sow seeds and water the Vault garden for the future when this is over. We create Q and A’s like this. We find new ways to keep socially distant but community connected.
What do you appreciate during lockdown?
My kids, who somehow have turned out to be awesome. My partner who is also awesome and very funny and the obvious choice for an apocalyptic companion. The weather. Praise be for that one! This whole thing would be a different story with our usual rain-fest.
Time. Time to talk (even if it’s usually Corona related) Time to walk. Time to exercise. Being able to cycle on the streets without fear from the car traffic (although people in cars seem to be speeding up now- slow down!- Have some respect for our soft and mortal flesh!). The consideration of others. Clean air. Nature. Signs in windows. Pictures in windows. Messages in windows! Time - Trying to work it out - What is time? So many small human things make this special.
How do you imagine the future after lockdown? For yourself and the wider art world in general.
Honestly I am frightened for the future. Our Tory leadership is beyond awful. A Pandemic and the Tories in charge! How do we survive when our capitalist society collapses and Boris is hiding in his massive country mansion paid for by the state, the people are abandoned and the media says nothing? Pretty weird.
I would love to believe that we will learn something from this experience and the world will come through a better place but I don’t really. Not with the leadership we have. I think there’s gonna be a huge fall-out for ordinary people. For people who already have the least in society. Some of us are in this together but plenty of us are not.
I think the arts will be left in bad shape after this. But it will be just one casualty of many. I suppose it will be up to us to build it back up. To support each other. To find new ways. To keep on keeping on. This is quite a doomy interview eh?! I'm not normally so doomy. Honestly- It’s a roller-coaster. HAHAHAH! Maybe you want to edit it
Where can people find you online?
SIGNSSIGNSSIGNS: