The current lockdown has had a strangling effect for creatives everywhere, with exhibitions cancelled, fairs postponed and artists unable to access their studios. For British artist Mark Wallinger however, the period has yielded a unique opportunity to document the deserted streets of London with a series of photographs and an accompanying poem.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, the Turner Prize-winning artist remarked on the uncanny sense of calm that has swept the capital’s busiest corners. “All the furious purpose that happens in the city has been emptied out – everything has become a weird distillation of itself. I feel like I’m trying to get to grips with something – it’s very far off from being a flaneur, but in a sense that’s what I’m doing.”

Taken on his iPhone during his daily morning walks, Wallinger was drawn to the areas of London where the lockdown has had its most striking impact. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Holborn, The British Museum – all the capital’s most recogniseable spots feature in Wallinger’s images, their eery emptiness amplified by the panorama setting with which they were taken. The few figures that do feature are warped and stretched, appearing like apparitions or fleeting glances. In one taken on Oxford Street, the front wheel of a cyclist is all we can see, while at Waterloo, a solitary figure making its way across the ticket hall (ordinarily a battlefield swarming with commuters), appears like a surreal dream.

Read Wallinger’s poem below:

‘I saw him’ by Mark Wallinger

I saw him, I am sure I saw
Him pass me in an empty bus
I mean he looked the same
But young, like I’d known him before
The name is on the tip of my