Artistic Predictions on Life After COVID-19
Graphic by Quynh-Nhi Tran. Images via @covidartmuseum on Instagram.
From fashion magazines to artsy Instagram pages, the current million-dollar question remains: how is life going to be after the coronavirus curves are flattened on a global scale? What will change and what will remain from our previous reality?
These uncertainties are present in everyone’s minds, and since art and fashion reflect these thoughts, adaptability is key. In my opinion, these two “artsy” segments need to (at least temporarily) put aside their previous approach towards the audience and highlight what the world needs amidst a global pandemic: healthcare.
In art, especially modernist art, the term “contingency” is a keyword. Overall it evokes a future that can be somehow foreseen. I believe this concept is especially relevant to the actual moment in history, since some countries’ quarantine policies are stricter, while other countries are becoming more flexible. Besides such differences, new waves are said to come in the upcoming months, which happened in previous pandemics in history. However, nothing is certain. Therefore, what should we believe? How can we re-imagine our globalized and interconnected world as it was before?
As an art enthusiast, I often find myself looking at artworks trying to find an answer. Thus, I have selected some thought-provoking pictures that might inspire you as well! I hope you can reflect on these quarantine-made artworks and think more critically about our “contingent future.”
Image via @covidartmuseum on Instagram
Due to social isolation, models have been orchestrating photoshoots from their own homes. Some designers aren’t using models at all and have gotten creative with how they have been shooting their clothes. Besides sometimes creating an awkward setting and not previewing how a human body would look in the specific outfit, it is a new and creative process that may dominate the future digital fashion world given its independence regarding physical models.
Similarly, fashion magazines are re-inventing their approach toward modeling. As the New York Times April 9th, 2020 article states, “What’s the point of a fashion magazine now? Glossy magazines sell fantasy. Now they have to reckon with reality. It’s complicated.” This strange and abrupt adaptation changes our notion of luxury in this new time. Moreover, fashion magazines had to abandon their previous glamorous approach to covers given the current health crisis, as can be seen in Vogue Italia’s April 2020 blank cover as well as Vogue Brazil’s June 2020 “Moda” cover (meaning fashion) with a band-aid on it. In these cases, the appeal to simplicity honored the healthcare workers who were on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Style was not a tactic anymore.
Signs of hope for what is yet to come are present in many artsy Instagram posts referencing clothes and beauty items. For instance, the @covidartmuseum Instagram page was created during quarantine and honors independent and unknown artists who fiercely and creatively put their predictions and thoughts on paper and consequently in other people’s minds. On that page, the #stayathome is encouraged while the page is still optimistic about the post-COVID world.
Fashion also has the power of smartly and creatively imposing critiques on our society’s dynamics. For instance, in the photo below, this unusual outfit is made of “more than 150 certificates that European citizens have to fill in to go outside for a short time,” and it’s a “metaphor of the collapsing capitalist-based healthcare system,” ultimately “[questioning] quarantine without accusing it.”
Image via @covidartmuseum on Instagram
In the following image, a gold mask inside a safety box is exposed to, perhaps, critique the abusive over-priced essential products during the pandemic, and how capitalism is at times exploitative. This satire makes us think about these pertinent issues in a non-conventional and indirect way as opposed to the more direct manner of newspaper articles and other mediums.
Image via @covidartmuseum on Instagram
While looking at quasi-surreal artworks are thought-provoking, looking at the past is also pertinent. One of the most renowned Brazilian artists, Adriana Varejão, posted on her Instagram two images alluding to how fashion and art have changed after a global health crisis - as was the case after the AIDS epidemic of the ‘80s and ‘90s. For example, Leigh Bowery, a famous club kid and fashion designer, created outfits that are aesthetically related to the disease’s proliferation and prophylaxis (through latex/condoms).
Given how the world and fashion changed after previous health crises, many speculate that our return to the world we are used to will be phased. In other words, returning to normal will be gradual as people will have to continue to use masks and take more care regarding social contact and congregations. Accordingly, many visual artists are currently predicting through their creations how people are going to dress after social isolation policies are lifted. When trying to reflect on what to wear in a pandemic, the following images inspired, intrigued (and entertained) me. While looking surrealistic and comic, the artists put into images what and where their minds are tilting to, which, after all, is a result of our current scenario.
Finally, I would like to end this article with the artistic “prediction” that struck me the most. A work by one of the most intriguing and celebrated contemporary artists, Banksy, where our reality and close future is depicted with the utmost optimism. Here, the frontline doctors are overtly honored by being depicted as superheroes. I see this as a profound message, not just an artsy image. By its lucidity, it calls attention to an important social critique: what contents we, as spectators and readers, should consume and support.
Image via @covidartmuseum on Instagram.