A Time Capsule for the Future
From the Curator:
Dear friends, followers, artists, and visitors,
These past few months have been hard. We have all been faced with great challenges, no matter where you are in the world. As things get more and more challenging it’s easy to think that now is not the time for art or creativity. It’s true, in times that call for justice for more than just one man, but for an entire national and global community of people, we need to sort our priorities, wake up out of our complacency, and pick up a sign, a book, or our wallets, and get to work to deliver what’s been needed and ignored for far too long. But we all know there is room for art too, art never stops being important to social causes, it is always a mechanism which can speak volumes when we want it to.
So what does this have to do with a Coronavirus time capsule? Why release this showcase now, when so many other important causes are demanding our attention? Well, first of all, these causes fighting in the name of black life, civil liberty, and once again, justice, should be demanding your attention right now. If they’re not, skip all this and go the links below, educate yourself, and do better. Second of all, here’s why we are sharing this show with you: This show is not just a virtual time capsule about the virus itself, its a capsule of art that’s been used to cope, process, and reflect during a worldwide crisis.
What you will find are works that range all across the board, some honest and direct, others a little frazzled but still earnest. Some are humorous while others are contemplative and serious. All in all they capture how the minds of creative people have dealt with one of the most tumultuous times in history so far. And it’s still going on. This is a showcase of how we’ve used art to keep us going this year and how art will always be there to get us through.
Our hope is that this show can be a jumping off point as we as artists continue to fight and carry on this movement for the sake of Black life whenever it needs to reminded that creativity carries on through tragedy. This is in no way something which should be interpreted as enough activism. Activism means standing up, speaking out, and creating direct change. This time capsule is simply here to say that when we need reminding of the power of art, it’s here.
Now, please consider donating to any one or several of these organizations before you leave. Art has power but money also makes a difference.
Please enjoy the show and remember,
BLACK LIVES MATTER. DEFUND THE POLICE.
-S
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Madeleine Matsson
Brooklyn, NY
Quarantine Views
(In order) Quarantine 3, Oil on Canvas, 18 x 18″, Quarantine 1, Oil on Canvas, 14 x 11″, Quarantine 5, Oil on Board, 12 x 9″, Quarantine 4, Oil on Canvas, 16 x 10″
I am an oil painter currently fascinated by the views of my home studio. I live on a normally busy street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and my window looks out to a usually busy bar. Since the pandemic started, the venue lights have gone dark and the chattering of smokers is non-existent. What is apparent is that the windows of the buildings have occupants. Everyone is home and the color of the light coming from each rectangle is an insight into what my neighbor might be doing whether that be the blue glow of the TV or the warm buzz of a ceiling light. I have become a voyeur of human-made color in my isolation; watching the vacant streets in contrast to the fully attended rooms above. The shopfront gates are down and I long to be in the park beyond the bar. Some part of the window is present in most of this series to remind the viewer that you, as well, are also confined.
David Hochhauser
London
Danse Macabre in Waitrose
Lino print on paper
18cm x 25cm
http://Www.davidhochhauserart.com
@david.hoch
The Black Death birthed the artistic concept of the dance macabre, of plague as a great equaliser, impacting all levels of society. Hans Holbien the Younger created his own danse macabre series in 1526, a selection of woodcuts that have become the most famous iterations of the genre. Holbien the Younger introduced an element of reformist satire to the genre, with comedic interactions between skeletons and people. The images of people fighting over toilet paper in the current Covid-19 virus lends itself well to the satire of the danse macabre; it is both ridiculous yet ultimately tragic, as the death toll rises. This print echoes the style of Holbein the Younger with an updated context. I believe it is important to draw parallels with historical crises and current ones, but also to mark the differences – unlike the black death, which spared no one, Covid-19 exposes the structural inequalities of our society, as certain groups are more vulnerable than others.
Allyn
Portland, OR, USA
Persist through Uncertainty & Plague Party
acrylic painting on canvas
Lady Liberty urges world citizens to stay strong amidst these uncertain times. Humans can and will persist through adversity. Our abundance of technology keeps us connected to a degree we’ve never seen before in history: what a wonderful time to be living!
While eagerly awaiting the post-pandemic bash of the century, Plague Party is about sending virtual juju to those on the front line. Thank you, health care workers, essential service workers, and everyone else who’s hangin’ in there!
Jude Pittman
Pacifica, California
#1. Sheltering #2. At the Park the Day Before Quaranteen
oil on canvas 40″x48″
pigment print 18″x24″
http://www.judepittmanart.com
@judepittmanstudio
Being outdoors now, as the weather warms, during quarantine is the best option if we distance ourselves from others. In the painting “Sheltering” a woman is feeling sensual in the pink light of a shade structure. And the day before quarantine was a reality, the park was where everyone could find their place.
Mario Pitanguy
Brazil
Isolation #8
Mix Media (digital and acrylic) – 90cm x 60cm
Isolation definition (Cambridge dictionary) – “the fact that something is separate and not connected to other things”. That`s what is happening in these isolation days. We are disconnecting, losing the skills to count hours and days, just aimlessly living the mourning for our plans. Disconnect is losing memory.
GW Harper
Atlanta, GA
Black and “Essential”
24”x30” Acrylic on Canvas
As a woman of color it is important to me that my work always illustrates other people of color being uplifted even in their most daunting of hours. I am a creative therefore my subject matter may vary however, the expressiveness of bold color always remains the same. I am always striving to push the envelope. How might I hide pieces of myself within the painted layers while simultaneously connecting with the outside world? My ultimate goal is to invoke emotion that not only transcends age, race, or gender but connects with the human experience at the most basic level.
Mary Anne Donovan
Cincinnati, OH, USA
SHELTER
Acrylic & collage on arches, 15” x 22”, 2020.
maryanne-donovan.com
Instagram:
@Mad484848
We have to carry our shelter within ourselves. To share it is our only hope.
This is one of my daily paintings completed since our shelter-in-place began.
Archana Devdas & Kirthana Devdas
Coimbatore, Chennai – India
Dear Covid
@kidevdas
http://www.kirthanadevdas.com
@archanadevdas
http://www.linkedin.com/in/archanadevdas
Is a collaborative project between two sisters quarantining apart in India.
Ellen VanderMyde
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Window Studies
Digital painting
I was laid off in mid-March because of the pandemic. I was worried for my safety and the safety of my family and friends. Like millions of others, I began grieving so many losses; quick ones like my job and those that drag on day by day, like not being able to hug my grandmother. In this time of isolation, which seems to be endlessly slipping away, I began painting images of the windows of my house to keep track of the days and connect with my surroundings. The walls have become my skin and the windows a second pair of eyes. This practice of observing subtle changes in light and color has helped me process my grief and stay present. I’ve found a new softness; a new quiet stillness and this meditation on looking is what I want to remember.
Mia Cinelli
Lexington, KY
Pandemic Parade Banners
Something else entirely: 18.25” x 30” | Strange times: 18.25″ x 31″ | I have no idea: 18.25″ x 29″
Medium: Wool and acrylic felt from previous projects, thrifted gold fabric from 2013, vintage gold and silver thread, cotton thread, my late grandmother’s embroidery floss, repurposed broom handle, 5’ dowel, hand-carved scrap pine and basswood, a brass and mother-of-pearl button, metal hooks, gold spray paint, clear lacquer
http://www.miacinelli.com
@miacinelli
At the turn of the 20th century, large vertical banners, or gonfalons, showcased the values of fraternal groups, women’s suffrage associations, and religious orders, becoming the public face of private organizations at parades and marches. Using custom typography informed by historic letterforms, cherished sentiments and virtues of the past have been replaced with now-ubiquitous phrases describing the current situation of the 2020 global pandemic. These hand-sewn banners were constructed during Kentucky’s safe-at-home order, using only materials at hand. An exercise of resourcefulness and constraint, they became a welcomed diversion of craft and routine. Acknowledging these absurd and alarming times, they were displayed in a socially-distant one-person Pandemic Parade—an homage to persistence, normalcy, and levity, even in truly trying times.
Georgia Green
Norwich
Reverie
Risograph print, 297mm x 420mm, 2020
https://www.georgia-elizabeth-green.com/
I am a printmaker and visual artist who creates colourful prints in response to the intimate treasures I unearth from soil, city and sea, that saturate the surface of the landscapes I inhabit. In response to the COVID-19 crisis I am assembling a collection of hyper-colourful, semi-surreal risograph prints highlighting the disorientated sensations of the lockdown and its aftermath. The series focuses on the unique beauty of empty spaces, soaked in human silence, ruptured by birdsong. This piece is a response to the daily reveries that permeate my isolation. Here a piece of moss found in my bed becomes a jungle. It slides inside my mind to fill another dormant day with colour: pink nettled ankles and sunburnt shoulders; the jewelled blue of a kingfisher flung through the air. A colour turned over and over by a persistent brain becomes smooth and vivid, ripe and ready to press into a print.
Sophie Warrick
St. Paul, MN, USA
Would You Be Mad at a Car for Running Out of Gas?
Photography, 3 self portraits
http://www.sophiewarrick.com
@sophs.snapshots
Facebook: Sophie Warrick Photography
If things were different, I could tell you how I’m doing. If things were different, I’d hold your hand and cry and sob and tell you how I’m not doing okay. If things were different, I could tell you why the assignment is late. If things were different, I could tell you why I don’t have the energy. If things were different, I wouldn’t need to break down because, If things were different, I would be able to do it all.
I don’t want to be a burden. I don’t want to create more work. I don’t want to ask for an extension. I don’t want to not be okay. I don’t want to admit defeat. I don’t want to admit that I need a day off. Would you be mad at a car for running out of gas? For needing to refuel? For hitting a breaking point, and needing to start over? Would you be mad at a machine for doing what it is built to do? Would you be mad at a car for running out of gas?
Ish Patil
New York
Quarantine journal: QUARANTINE DAZE
Mixed media (digital collage of images & drawings)
https://www.ishpatil.com
@ia_patil
Why us? Why now?? What is going on???
Biz Sutton
Derbyshire
“Wash Your Hands You Detty Pig”
29.7cm/21cm (A4 sized)
The hands are entirely illustrated using pencil crayon on calico fabric, and the quote has been done in hand embroidery. (I also took the photograph and digitally edited the vibrancy of the colour)
As we’ve surpassed the peak of the pandemic and restrictions will begin to loosen, I wanted to create a piece to urge people to keep up the rules and regulations for example washing your hands. This is a comical piece quoting a loved character in the Netflix comedy series Sex Educations, but the imperative of the message and flamboyancy of the hands indicates the alarm of the situation, urgency to keep going and the importance to do your bit (whether it’s simply washing your hands). This piece would be seen as like a campaign poster within the time capsule of how the times were handled with both encouragement yet severity, highlighted by the sinister and garish colour and composition of the dripping hands.
Margaux Rebourcet
France
Ma vie en bocal, ouvert et a envie de s’en libérer
17,5 cm (width) x 22 cm (height)
This painting with the glass jars is a representation of my state of mind at a certain point during lockdown. The feeling was a quiet boredom, caused by the physical and mental posture in which lockdown had put me. On this particular day lockdown was not easy anymore. I could not bear this quietness, this tone down. So I felt in between states, one of being resilient, enjoying my in-house activities, and the boiling need to move, to go outside and socialize. The glass jars are an illustration of this state. One standing and half full, being resilience. The other one being the desire to just be set free physically and mentally, to pour everything out.
Gülce
Izmir Turkey
Corona Changes
digital painting 12×12 cm
“An ongoing illustration series of quarantine experiences on how our lives changed since lockdown at home.” I used a promising phrase “..is the new” and vibrant colors. When we look at the posters, I wanted to smile and think “same”. Maybe someone who saw these illustrations, years later will remember the quarantine a little more colorfully.
Graça Tirelli
Porto Alegre, Brasil
My Stuff
acrylic on canvas
The isolation we are experiencing has made me search within our daily archives of experiences, where I express the memories and responses of what we have been experiencing. They are the objects that represent us, identify us, approach us and also distance us by trends or tastes. They are moments of travel, socializing, joy, fun. And with Covid 19 of uncertainties of pain that we try to minimize, embracing our things and people that are close to us.
Highpriestess of Art
Berlin
Have got a tripod!
Oil on board
@highpriestess_of_art
Now, when virtual media is almost a sole medium for us to communicate with the world, I’ve got to the point of needing a tripod and am going to become good friends with it
Christa Maria Marschall
Lindau Germany
Isolated Behind
70 x 50 cm
Acrylpainting on paper
This pandemic shut down forced us in an extraordinary isolation with reflection and “Whats next?” There are thousands of faces behind this mask ,all experienced feelings of this earth, hidden and secret
Tommaso Paladino
Chicago, IL, USA
The Regality of Wait
16″ x 19.5″ graphite, colored pencil and acrylic on paper.
http://Www.instagram.com/punkarttheory
http://Www.instagram.com/punktheorem
Social standing, rank and file nor class will nature recognize. We should embrace this concept in this time of true equality under the veil of infection. Maybe under these restricting times well we learn as a people that some social ideologies need to be broken and rejected.
Anikó Koltai
Zürich, Switzerland
COVID Mood
Oil on Canvas
https://kleio.com/page/aniko-koltai
This pandemic showed us how vulnerable we are. It’s not just our body that can be destroyed by pathogens, but it’s also our mind and soul that cannot bear isolation, separation and the sense of confinement for a long time. We are humans after all and a such we are social beings.
Jason Oberman
Flagstaff, AZ, USA
Battle Scars
Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches (40 x 50 cm)
@heavenly_legends_art, http//www.hlastudios.com
This is a depiction of an Italian Nurse during the early days of the pandemic. She is working double and triple shifts and as a result she is not only fatigued, but her face is raw in places from wearing her mask. I wanted to show this universal situation as it pertains to our health care providers working on the front lines. Society will forget the sacrifices many make, but I hope this moment will serve as a reminder of this selfless humanitarian service. This nurse, Sarah, is a real person. Normally I paint less literally, but in this case her face says volumes about this perilous time in history. As a result I simply painted what I saw. My hope is others will see and feel the same.
Alina Moshnina
Moscow, Russia
David is in Quarantine
painting on natural silk. Size 90×90 cm.
“David is in quarantine” the picture is inspired by acute social problems that have appeared in society in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. As the main character of the picture, I chose the sculpture of David. David is a symbol of Florence for me, and Italy is currently one of the countries most affected by coronavirus. The fear of infection makes people avoid each other, suspect the disease everywhere. The virus is not visible to the naked eye, but it is all around us. The enemy is not visible and this instills even more terror in our hearts. At the same time, social isolation is depressing. Closed museums, exhibitions, cafes, theaters, parks, and so on, we can not move freely and communicate with our loved ones. This is why David is depicted in a medical mask.
Maryanne Braine
New York
Self Portrait in Isolation
Digital Photography, 10in x 10in
@maryanne.braine
http://www.maryannebraine.com
Humanity has been thrust into a time of uncertainty. Everyone seems to be struggling in one way or another. I’ve been lucky enough to stay employed with steady income and have the ability to work from home. Despite this privilege, I’ve been struggling to keep my own mind quiet and my anxiety at bay.
Our world looks more different everyday and much of the damage that has been done to people’s lives and our communities will be hard to reverse. It’s been hard to sit with how long this will last and what the world will look like once we finally get to the other side. In this moment, I’m still standing, but it’s harder to see myself clearly—it’s harder to see anything clearly.
Melody Jean Moulton
San Diego, California
The Ant Farm & Everyday a New Fear
Hand-Cut Analog Collage on Found Photo
https://www.ghostsgritmomentum.com @ghostgritmomentum
A piece from the series, The COVID Collection: Works created during shelter-in-place orders March 16, 2020 to Present Day. I live alone & this is how I’m dealing with it. I feel like the character in a movie where a devious genie grants me with one wish. Without thinking that there might be negative consequences, I ask for more peace & quiet, uninterrupted time to create & just like that my wish is fulfilled… BY A PANDEMIC. Welcome to my beautiful nightmare.
KARLA GRAVINA GRAÇA
RIO DE JANEIRO
Living In Chaos
Draw on paper book of zoology and parts of an dictionary, and
Notes about Pandemics
21 x 15 cm
2020
@karlagravina
This work talks about the covid and our fragile tools to deal with the disease. In the paper of zoology have a part that explains the lungs and his importance. I have also notes about pandemics that affects many places around the world. This work brings to us the question, when this is gonna stop? What is really important for the government? Our health? It’s not seems to be like that in Brasil. All those deaths don’t matter?