Black Death

Kimberly Marie Ashby, American

Black Death, 2020

Kimberly Marie Ashby is a Philadelphian artist, activist, and doctoral candidate. In her multimedia artworks, she makes visible social justice issues in order to benefit the mental health of marginalized communities. Her collage Black Death addresses various pressing issues from 2020 – police brutality, racial inequity, mental health, and Covid-19. In this piece, a black woman is shown in grief, with her face held in two pairs of hands. This distressed woman is superimposed on a rugged graveyard, which is actually from a Brazilian cemetery struggling to keep up with the coronavirus death toll. By combining these two emotionally heavy images, Ashby demonstrates the overwhelming effects of both coronavirus and policy brutality on the physical well-being and mental health of the BIPOC communities. Label by Tori Erisman

Windley Key, Florida

Chandan Khanna, Indian, born 1980

Windley Key, Florida, 2020

This image was included in the article “Why We Can't Ignore the Link Between COVID-19, Climate Change and Inequity” in a collection of photos titled “America at a Standstill”. Though it might seem like an odd choice to select this image when asked to pick an artwork, I think this photograph does an excellent job of encapsulating all of what’s at stake in this week’s readings. The link between COVID-19 and climate change is a theme that figured prominently in many of this week’s texts. Though the water in this image might appear placid and serene, there is the tacit acknowledgment, provided by the beach chairs and tables juxtaposed against it, that the scene is one wrought with a degree of inherent precarity. Label by Jay Jolles

Happily Ever After Covid-19

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