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DRAWINGS FROM THE LONG WINTER

‘There was no reason in particular that compelled me to begin this series of drawings. I scarcely knew what I was doing. But night after night I sat at a desk illuminated by a small lamp and some candles, with a view to the north along a stark winter street, the sodium streetlights lending eerie shadows to the sprinting foxes. The virus was rampant; the death rate approached terrifying levels and there seemed to be no end in sight. The weather was dreadful and the news from the radio was worse.

Each drawing appeared slowly as I covered the sheets of paper with graphite from my 8B pencils, drawing from the top left-hand corner to the bottom right. The pictures came from my iPhone - either pictures I had taken myself or been sent by friends, or sometimes screen grabs from Instagram or Twitter. Every picture seemed to suggest - to indicate, as if it was a signpost - that there was an escape. There was, somewhere, a way out. Whether there was, or was not - we still cannot say.’

Stanley Donwood, June 3rd, 2021