Hunter Lennan

A COVID-19 Reflective Publication

A Place Called Home has been developed as a publication based design output. Regarding the New Zealand COVID-19 Lockdown periods, the intention behind the book itself is to depict the hardships faced under a mental wellbeing narrative for the 18-25 age demographic within the Auckland and Waikato regions. As global recognition remains prominent over the pandemic restrictions, Aotearoa’s reflection of the time period had hardly been gazed upon on a storytelling basis due to its shortened longevity in contrast to many Western nations. My intention is to bring light to individual’s who have braved through this time period to tell their story, focussing predominantly on the mental wellness side of the narrative, three individuals were selected for an open-ended qualitative interviewing process. Enveloping into a conversational dialogue used throughout the publication. Along with these three interviews includes an additional self-reflection, completed by myself.

In order to decipher the artistic direction of ‘APCH’, the intention of the narrative itself was to be considered. By including the ‘My House is on Fire and I can’t get out’ notion, the primary intent of the publication became metaphorical indulgence in image-making to reflect periods of mental strain. Therefore, the use of multiple physical design mediums such as Charcoal, Oil Pastel and Fine-tip Pens were used to visualise the breadth of diction supplied by the participants in order to accurately depict their emotional responses to the time period. Focussing on a combination of neo-expressionism and satirical commentary to work in conjunction to bring the book to life.