Alice Gompels, a third year Illustration BA(Hons) student, has so far collated over 130 letters for her Letters from Covid site which aims to become a time capsule by being part of a collective moment to record accounts from a situation which has turned ‘normal life’ upside down.
As well as receiving letters from across the UK, submissions have flown in from Hong Kong, Germany, Israel and many more countries.
Alice, who has been based in home city of Bristol since the restrictions were brought in, will be creating an online archive of the letters on the website over the next few months, as well as sharing them on Instagram via @lettersfromcovid19. Her hope is that through these platforms, the project will offer people a sense of connection during this period, albeit remotely.
Alice is on the hunt for more hand-written and dated submissions (ideally by 25 May 2020) asking for people to describe where they’re based and whether they’ve self-isolated, how day-to-day life has changed, their observations of the pandemic including government and media responses, and their predictions for how life may change in the future.