Alan Smith talking on his COVID-19 drawings. Part of the Call Centre art research project on the coronavirus crisis by Tracey Warr. Being and getting home. Experiences of time and momentum.

Images emerge from the marks like something uncertainly perceived in flickering candlelight in chthonic darkness underground.

Drawing, Alan says, is ‘thinking that happens on the periphery of other more direct thoughts or observations’. It is, he reflects, like working to see in limited light, drawing imagery out of shifting shadows, related to the rhythms of handwriting and the spoken word.

The image has to be extracted. It comes out of the paper rather than being put on it, although, he says, ‘of course, I have to find those images. I am responsible for them’.