Waiting for This to End: My “Pandemic days” Project
By Adriana G. Prat | August 10, 2020
During my art practice, I ruminate on an emotion brought upon by a personal or global issue — like my recurrent concern about the climate crisis. When the pandemic took over our lives, my full attention shifted to this new global calamity, its immediate and long-term consequences. In the beginning, creating any type of art felt superfluous, not at the height of these bizarre and dramatic times. I felt stuck and uninspired. While trying to find a way to create amid such extraordinary times, I came across the collection of small boxes I hoarded in my studio over the past few years. Too pretty and too sturdy to be tossed away, I knew I would eventually upcycle them.
It did not take long to imagine these receptacles as metaphors for what was happening to everyone during this pandemic: we were locked in our places. Time stopped. Plans were stalled. Some of us found humor in the newfound home-bound scenario. Others feared. We were forced to dwell in these unclear and ever-changing sentiments, a mix of awe, fear, anger, sadness, frustration, and despair. The virus took root in our new normal as the deaths continued to rise on every corner of the planet. Uncertainty took over our world.
“Pandemic Days,” mixed media (acrylic, ink pen, and collage), 50″ x 24″ 2020
Working on these boxes kept me focused on the feelings I was experiencing and sensing from those in my global family. I painted these varied-sized boxes gold with acrylic, collaged with paper images of my mixed media “Waiting for this to end” painting, and I wrote on them. The words, phrases or quotes on each of the boxes were either personal expressions or things heard during the early pandemic days (March – May 2020), loosely organized within the five stages of grief (denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance), as proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying.
Detail of “Pandemic Days,” mixed media, 2020
Detail of “Pandemic Days,” mixed media, 2020
These golden boxes evoke people sequestered as a result of quarantine or stay-at-home recommendations: some hopeful while enjoying more privileged shelter-in-place conditions, some desperate for the crisis to be over and put an end to an even worse reality than that of infection, or even the thousands of victims that did not and will not survive the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.
This collection is intended to bring perspective, even humor, and ultimately hope to the viewer during the ongoing crisis, and to eventually serve as an homage to its fighters, to those of us who will not survive it, and to those of us who will be left once this pandemic is finally over. Visit Adriana’s website for purchase information.
Copyright © 2020 Adriaa G. Prat
Adriana G. Prat is an academically trained scientist from Argentina, that after moving to the USA became a visual artist. Her boldly colored and layered, oil- or acrylic-based non-representational paintings are produced during a process akin to meditation. She has shown at open studios, galleries, alternative spaces, and museums, in both Argentina and the greater Boston area, and, through a recent residency in Iceland. When not at her Cambridge studio or traveling, Adriana welcomes visitors to a shared studio in the Boston SOWA art district.
Beautiful and inspiring! I cannot wait to see it in person (in the near future)
Thank you Lourdes! I do hope I can show it at the SOWA studio when we reopen safely… until then! Best, Adriana
Dear Adriana, I saw these little treasures with my own eyes and wonderful they are!
Such an amazing collection, haunting pictures and messages. Bravo
Thank you Helen!!! I really appreciate your comments and I am so glad you find such a connection with the project. Best, Adriana
Thank you Adriana for sharing these complex expressions of feelings so beautifully!!
Dear Penny, Thank you very much for your input. I am so glad to read you here! Stay safe, Adriana
I love this concept and looking at the work that resulted from it.
Thank you very much for your comment, Claudia! I am also glad that the boxes were upcycled from iPhone or similar electronic equipment that otherwise would have ended up as trash.
Querida Adriana, felicitaciones por tu excelente trabajo y feliz de saber que estas haciendo lo que tanto te gusta a pesar de estos tiempos dificiles. Un abrazo fuerte desde Buenos Aires!!
Querida Cynthia,
Thank you very much for your comment and enthusiasm about my work! In times like this, doing what we love keeps us focused and hopeful. I hope to see you again one day In BA! Xoxo,
Adriana
Adriana, I love these! They are hauntingly beautiful and even more they are saving trash from landfills.
Cheers,
Rebecca
Dear Rebecca, Thank you for your great comment!!! I am so glad you enjoyed looking into them… I hope you can see them on a wall one day soon… stay safe and well, Adriana