NESCol lecturer provides laughter through lockdown art project

October 28, 2020

NESCol lecturer Vicki Frenz has found a fun project she got involved with at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic has gone onto receive acclaim from Aberdeen Art Gallery and beyond. Photographs set up and taken by Vicki and fellow artist friends have gone on display on Aberdeen Art Gallery’s social medial channels and website and are set to be featured in a forthcoming ‘Covid collection’ when it opens on the top floor balcony of the renowned gallery.

Vicki, a Lecturer in Visual Communication at the College’s City Campus, and a group of creative friends, known as ‘All4Won’ – their lottery syndicate name,  set themselves a challenge in lockdown. During one of their weekly video calls the group decided to replicate some of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s most iconic works after being inspired by the Getty Museum initiative to post photos recreating art masterpieces.

Most of the group’s photographic recreations were created using mobile phones and they chose various themes to focus their choices on, including sculpture, nudes and men. They had strict rules, no photoshopping of the images was allowed and they could only use items found in their homes.

Vicki’s creation was her interpretation of the 1950 ‘Margueritte McBey’ by James McBey which she renamed ‘Mightgreet Frenz’. Vicki explained, “The idea started with the hat, which is a basket for keeping wool in, and my favourite coral work top. The tree trunk was made from toilet rolls, which were a recurring theme at the start of lockdown!”

The group were delighted that their creations provided enjoyment for the Gallery’s followers and now, the wider public after local media shared the story. Vicki said, “Creating our artworks really helped us get through lockdown. It gave us a fun challenge to focus on and definitely improved our knowledge of the Gallery collection. As you can imagine it provided hours of hilarity on a Friday evening when we shared them on our video chat. It’s great to see that others are getting some much needed amusement from them now too. “