Richard Leydier's Lockdown Diary: The New Vocabulary of Social Distancing

In the second installment of his lockdown diary for Artpress, Richard Leydier reflects on the linguistic and perceptual shifts induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. He critiques the emergence of terms like "social distancing" and "dynamic beaches," arguing that such phrases reveal a troubling Orwellian turn in public discourse. Leydier draws parallels to Soviet propaganda and notes how fear has eroded social gains. He observes that the pandemic has altered the way we view art, citing works by Georges Seurat, Simone Martini, Pablo Picasso, and Andreas Gursky as examples where proximity now feels jarring. The essay also touches on temporal distortion, with his daughter asking if he knew Leonardo da Vinci, and predicts a future where art serves as an escape from a harsher world. Leydier references Michel Houellebecq's assertion that the post-pandemic world will be "the same but a little worse."