The Covid Dyad series continues an exploration I began while on an artist in residence retreat 2018. I started experimenting with pearlescent watercolour paints, that included a range of extraordinary metallic shades.

Within sociology “dyad” refers to two things of a similar kind, nature or group. Dyadic communication represents the intersubjective exchange between two participants.

During my 2018 retreat I developed an extensive series of drawings that featured two forms (of different colours) attached by a thin filament, allowing an exchange between the forms. As I wrote at the time: “It’s deeply satisfying to follow the path of one’s hand and eye when working with a provocative material. What emerges is both familiar and peculiar. One’s default concerns are rediscovered through play.”

In the early weeks of the pandemic I returned to the forms and methodology I’d previously explored, but now the shapes and colour exchanges came to represent my anxiety about the covid virus, and how it might be shared between individuals.

Covid Dyad series, 2020, pearlescent and graphite watercolour on stone paper.