Happily Ever After Covid-19 / by Environmental Humanities Hub

Rebecca Hayter

Happily Ever After Covid-19, 2020

This piece of art titled “Happily Ever After Covid-19” is by Rebecca Hayter. In the illustration you can see what appears to be a father and his children wearing masks, while he cradles them and shows them something on a tablet. It then displays in yellow and red text, “Let’s Make A World Where We Tell Our Children How Bad Things Were Before Covid-19.” This all appears on top of a blue background that fades into a lighter blue background. According to the illustration and its text, it is easy to assume that the illustrator is hoping for major changes to be made to combat the Covid-19 crisis while also solving other pressing issues of this time. The illustrator is hoping the world will be different than it was before the Coronavirus pandemic, where the hardships of before have been solved. Label by Callie Sties

In Rebecca Hayter’s poster “Happily Ever After Covid-19”, an older black man sits with two young children, all three wearing masks. The blue background has a flame like pattern at the bottom calling to mind images of perhaps a looming threat of violence on one hand or the flames of revolution on the other. The scene reflects not only the current pandemic but the current global racial justice movements. The text above and below the subjects reads “Let’s make a world where we tell our children how bad things were before covid-19”. Hayter asks that the viewer not only envision but actively work towards a near future in which economic, racial, and health inequality are all things of the past. Label by Caitlin Blomo