Elizabeth Day felt as if she hadn’t seen the sun for decades. It was a gloomy December morning and the podcaster and author was headed towards a London recording studio. On the way, she passed a row of houses that were being renovated. The windows on one particular house had just been replaced and covered with a translucent blue sheet and haphazard orange tape; the scene caught her eye, so she paused to capture it with her iPhone 15 Pro.
“I’m known among my loved ones as someone who takes photos of random things, but I just found this so arresting,” Day says. “I was struck by the grammar of it, the angular nature. The tape reminded me of art’s golden ratio, the geometry like a Mondrian crossed with a Rothko. I was exhausted that morning and it completely brightened my mood.”
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Some months later, Day entered the image into the Royal Academy of Arts’ annual Summer Exhibition, and was delighted to be selected. “I love the fact that anyone can enter,” Day says. “It proves that anyone can be an artist, and that art is for everyone.” She’s now in touch with an interested buyer. “The RA will keep 35%, but I’ll donate the remainder to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.”
Day passed by the house again recently to find the renovation complete. The window looked like any other, but, she says, “The transient nature makes it more special, I think. I just hope people will have a conversation with the image. Maybe it makes you reflect on your own life, or the life of the person on the other side of the window. Who were they? Who will they be?”
