Miriam Elia

Artist Miriam Elia's 'We do Lockdown’ brings the humour of her bestselling We go to the Gallery to a bleak post-Covid world. Created entirely during lockdown at the height of the global pandemic, Miriam is now ready to flatten the humour curve with this new satirical title.

Mummy, John and Susan adjust to the ‘new normal’, where a joyless existence is heroically embraced to save humanity. The children end up with no real-life friends, no education, and are conditioned to see their peers as portable germ vessels.

Across each page Susan and John, guided by an abundance of love, care and neurosis only Mummy can provide her offspring, depict highly identifiable everyday situations ranging from lemongrass shortages to taped-up no-go-zone children’s playgrounds. Elia’s artworks, created in a colourful and bold watercolour style, depict Mummy teaching her children baking skills and reinterpreting empirical evidence provided by the daily press briefings.

“As an artist, rather than wallowing in my despair, I chose to make light of what might be the most depressing catastrophe that the world has seen for some time."

- Miriam Elia

And more...

Since launching her indie-publishing outfit Dung Beetle Books in 2015 with the seminal work We go the Gallery, Miriam has attracted unprecedented worldwide attention not only for the astute writing, but its exquisite and skilful artwork. This first book in the series went on to receive critical and commercial success, selling over 150,000 UK copies.

The release of the title coincided with copyright law exceptions for parody which were coming into play at that time. As a result, We go to the Gallery marked an important milestone in Elia’s career, catching her in a conceptual copyright storm that catapulted her into a legal and media tussle with a well-known UK publisher. Across five years, We go out, We learn at home and We do Christmas completed Series One Dung Beetle titles. We do Lockdown celebrates a new chapter of Elia’s independent publishing spirit, launching Series Two of the spoof Learning Series.

About Miriam Elia:

Miriam Elia MA RCA (b.1982 London) graduated from Royal College in 2006 and is a multidisciplinary artist and writer working across collage, illustration, print making, short films and live performance. Her diverse work has included illustrated handmade books and prints, as well as producing large-scale installations, collage, prints, drawings, short films and animations. Elia is also commissioned to make works across film, radio, TV and print. She founded Dung Beetle Books in 2015 as a means of giving herself greater creative freedom over her works and published titles include We go to the Gallery (2015), We learn at home (2016) We go out (2016),  (Series 1 Reading Scheme titles) and Piggy Goes to University (2018). Her works have been covered or featured in press and magazines such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Critic and Private Eye.