If you are looking for something to do this Bank Holiday weekend, why not check out the Lockdown Love stories exhibition in London this weekend!  

Lockdown Love Stories was curated by artist Philippa Found who previously worked as a curator and director of ROLLO Contemporary art. Philippa began collecting love stories from strangers online as a way to examine and document the world in these strange times - she thought the shift in the world would have a profound effect on relationships. There were people breaking up, making up, hooking up and outright living together after only dating for a short while. 

The dating game had changed. 

By doing this it also enabled her to examine the effect the lockdown had on our mental health as we lived in these virtual spaces online - alone but connected to so many all at once. The once perfectly curated feeds began to resemble a shared reality of lockdown, unable to hide behind a filter, our feeds began to fill with banana bread, loungewear selfies and Instagram challenges. 

The aim of this project was to challenge the false ideals we create from the false representation of love on social media which make us want to only share perfectly curated moments - staged,  filtered and captioned with #couplegoals. The whole idea of this project was to tear down those walls and show the argument you might have had with your partner just before you took that perfect image or the issues that were lurking in the background of your relationship that found their way to the surface during lockdown. By sharing these stories it lets people know that they’re not alone and shows a true representation of love - warts and all. 

Philippa created a space online for people to anonymously submit their stories, be it stories about divorce, workplace affairs or love lost. Lockdown Love Stories quickly became one of lockdown’s most successful human interest projects in London and in April of this year Love Stories was awarded the London Community Story Grant for their anthropological insight into London during lockdown. Since launching last year Philippa has published more than 1,100 stories on her site and has been featured in The New Yorker, Grazia and Stylist magazine. 

Philippa’s own lockdown love story includes creating new life having given birth to a beautiful baby boy only a week ago which only speaks to her passion and ability to multitask - Philippa worked on this project until she literally gave birth. 

The show is now being displayed across 13 of Derwent London's buildings which have been transformed from vacant spaces to public art exhibitions. Walk through the high street and discover these stories of resilience, hope and love. You will be able to read extracts from stories about self love, divorce, friendship, positive breakups and affairs - from Oxford street to Shoreditch High Street. 

Look out for the Lockdown Love Stories signature pink and a bold red font which is a visual nod to feminist artist, Barbara Kruger. This is feminist art intervention and activist storytelling, updated for the Instagram and Covid generation.

Site Locations:

1. 29-31 George Street, W1

2. 58 Rathbone Place, W1 

3. 22 Tottenham Court Road, W1

4. 11 Howland Street, W1

5. 101 Tottenham Court Road, W1

6. 89 Whitfield Street, W1

7. 234-244 Stockwell Rd, London SW9 9SP

8. Greencoat House, 1 Greencoat Row, Francis St, London SW1P 1DH

9. 5-8 Hardwick Street, EC1R 4RG

10. Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ

11. White Collar Factory, 1 Old Street Yard, EC1Y 8AF

12. White Chapel Building, 10 Whitechapel High Street, E1 8QS

13. Brunel Building, Canalside Walk, London W2 1DG

Visitors are encouraged to share images of the window that most represent their lockdown love experience on Instagram tagging: @lockdown_lovestories