Plastic Bag Awards 2020

As we spring into a new year it's time to look back at 2020 with the Plastic Bag Awards, the Baggies 2020. It's been a funny old year really with too much time spent at home and not enough time spent out and about but that's how it goes sometimes. To reflect the times there are some new categories for the awards. My lockdown started on 16 March so the year had hardly begun. The jury was socially distanced at all times and didn't have too many problems judging the entries this year so here we go, the Baggies 2020!

Best Theatre

In a slow start to the year I only managed to see two productions:

'Rags' at the Park Theatre
'The Visit, or the Old Lady Comes to Call' at the National Theatre

'Rags' is a musical about immigration to New York in the early 1900s so big themes but a small production in a small theatre. 'The Visit' is a strange play in which the richest woman in the world wants her first boyfriend to be punished for getting her pregnant many years ago and she has the money to make it happen. A total opposite to 'Rags' since this was on the big stage of the Olivier Theatre at the National with a big cast and lots of changes of scenery. In a more normal year I'm not sure either would be nominated but the winner is 'The Visit' because of the excellent performances of Lesley Manville and Hugo Weaving.

Best Exhibition 

I saw ten exhibitions this year so that's a surprisingly good haul. The five nominees were all excellent exhibitions and would have been nominated in a 'normal' year.

'Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution' at the MSK Ghent in Belgium
'Troy' at the British Museum

'Titian: Love, Desire, Death' at the National Gallery
'Artemisia' at the National Gallery
'Turner's Modern World' at Tate Britain

The Van Eyck exhibition was the biggest ever of his works, 'Troy' explored artefacts that tell the story of the Trojan war, the Titan brought together his poesie paintings for the first time, 'Artemisia' was the first exhibition of her works in the UK and the Turner exhibition reflected how he painted and recorded the industrialisation of the country in the first half of the 19th Century. They were quite different in many ways and all were excellent. 

There can only be one winner and that's got to be the Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent. I have fond memories of it, of my little adventure to Belgium, of seeing some of the panels from the Ghent Altarpiece up close to see the detail which is impossible at the Cathedral where it is on display, the incredible detail in even the smallest of the paintings and seeing so many of his works in the same place. Well done MSK Ghent.

Best Building Visited After Two Decades

After seeing a small exhibition near the Barbican I walked down to go to Blackfriars and when I passed St Paul's saw it was open so thought, why not visit? I went online when I got home and booked a ticket. I later got a ticket to visit Westminster Abbey. I've been in both before but not in a couple of decades. The nominees are:

St Paul's Cathedral
Westminster Abbey

It was strange going inside both buildings, everyone masked, following the one-way route and seeing what there was to see. St Paul's was quite empty with few visitors, which was nice, but Westminster Abbey was far more busy, including some tourists. Both have their own history and interesting objects but the award goes to Westminster Abbey for the beauty of the place, the tombs of kings and queens but the Unknown Warrior's is the tomb that's highlighted and, of course, for Poet's Corner. I had planned to visit it again in the run up to Christmas  but that wasn't to be.

Best Face Mask

2020 is the year of the face mask. I started off using a scarf back in March and migrated to using the make-your-own tee shirt sleeve mask since proper masks weren't available anywhere. And then places started making masks and you could buy them so I did. I started to collect them. I got some made up using my own designs from details of paintings and prints. It was a bit of fun, If we need to wear a mask (and we do) then wear a nice one, a colourful one, a mask that says 'this is me'. One of my early favourites was the 'Sunflowers' mask from a detail in Van Gogh's painting from the National Gallery. It was light an airy, fully fitting and my glasses could go on the outside so they didn't steam up. Later on in the summer I got a Rosetta Stone mask from the British Museum, made to a similar design but it feels bigger and more airy and is my mask of choice for gallery visits. This is the mask that wins the award. It's interesting and it works, especially for someone in glasses.

Best Lockdown TV

In lockdown and after, and then as we entered another lockdown, TV companies have had a captive audience but have they risen to the challenge to be creative and cater to our needs? From my point of view, the answer can only be 'no' but there have been some good programmes that have fed me over the past year. These include 'Bake Off' of course, the joyous discovery of 'The Repair Shop', 'Staged' with Michael Sheen and David Tennant performing online in their own kitchens, Charlie Dimmock's 'Garden Challenge' and the glory that was 'Grayson's Art Club' way back in the spring, one of the first programmes to respond directly to lockdown. It's obvious really but the award goes to Grayson and Philippa Perry for 'Grayson's Art Club'

That's a rather abbreviated version of the Baggies for 2020. Let's hope that a normal service can be resumed safely at some point next year. I'm optimistic.