Conceptual Boredom Explores Unconventional View on Everyday Life in Lockdown

M&C Saatchi is launching Conceptual Boredom, a photography project that explores our connection with our homes, our things, our food and our bored minds during the Covid-19 outbreak. The initiative aims to raise money for NHS Charities Together, in order to support the health and wellbeing of frontline NHS staff and volunteers.

Conceived and developed by M&C Saatchi creative team Camila Gurgel and Ieva Paulina, the photographic series documents the boredom of life in lockdown. The project will raise funds for NHS workers, who don’t have time to get bored, via a GoFundMe page.

In the Conceptual Boredom series of images, Camila and Ieva have used everyday objects to create surreal scenarios and shapes. The saturated colour and slightly vintage style give the visuals a sense of melancholy and nostalgia as well as humour. The pieces are designed to be both highly relatable and abstract at the same time.

Creative duo Gurgel and Paulina hail from Brazil and Latvia, respectively. They are both illustrators (previous projects include @the.gurgels and @just.eyebrows), and this is the first time they have launched a photography project, assuming the roles of photographers, stylists and set designers.

The team will continue to post new images throughout lockdown, in order to spread the word and encourage people to donate to the GoFundMe page.

Conceptual Boredom is available to view on Instagram.

Camila Gurgel, senior copywriter, M&C Saatchi, said: “This project is a documentation of lockdown life, viewed through creative eyes, where we start to see things around us, in our homes and in ourselves, from a different perspective. It explores how we’re relating to objects in a deeper way than ever before, how we merge with our homes and our stuff, and how we can turn boredom into art.”

Ieva Paulina, senior art director, M&C Saatchi, added: “Our amazing NHS staff and volunteers are working tirelessly to save lives, staying away from their homes and families. Meanwhile, we’re complaining about having to play Monopoly again. We’re lucky that boredom is our biggest problem during this time, so we thought we should use our privilege to help those working on the front line, who don’t have time to be bored.”