By Robin Catalano. Full article available on greylockglass.com
During the height of the Spanish flu pandemic, afflicted Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted a pair of self-portraits. In the first, he sits alone in a chair beside his rumpled bed, bundled in a robe, blankets covering his legs. His face is drained of color and his mouth hangs open, as if gasping for breath. In the second, painted after his recovery, he lists, seemingly exhausted, toward the viewer.
Though there is little besides Munch’s art that so viscerally records the 1918 pandemic, in its aftermath, the arts flourished, as they so often do following times of social and political upheaval—think the Renaissance after the black plague, or even the large body of political art that emerged following the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It may be too early to gauge exactly what kind of art will emerge as the defining form of the post-COVID-19 period, but one media is staking its claim: street art.
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Create HOPE – Collective Mural Initiative
In the context of the current state of isolation, recommended by public health officials across the globe due to COVID19, a new initiative has been launched through an alliance between local Canadian arts and health advocates, to create an arts-based health promotion initiative in response to the high demand for mental health support for families to cope during this difficult period that we face.
Créer l’espoir – une murale virtuelle pancanadienne se dessine à l’horizon
Malgré les distances qui séparent les Canadiens en ces temps de confinement, des initiatives pour les réunir virtuellement surgissent partout au pays. L’une d’entre elles est le projet de murale virtuelle numérique Create Hope | Créer l’espoir.
L’initiative consiste à compiler des interprétations visuelles du concept d’espoir. Elle s’adresse en premier lieu aux enfants qui, comme le reste du monde, sont en quarantaine pour une période indéterminée.
Le projet repose sur deux initiatives lancées par Rodrigo et Paola Ardiles Gamboa, frère et sœur, soit le Dundas West Public Museum de Toronto (géré principalement par l’ONG Creativo Arts) et la coopérative de promotion de la santé Bridge for Health basée à Vancouver. Le mot-clé avec lequel ils veulent faire résonner le projet au pays est #createhopemural.
TOURING TORONTO – Embrace street art culture with graffiti tours, art festivals and daring views on a hip trip to Toronto
Dundas West Open Air Museum featured prominently today in “The Sun”, the UK’s widest read newspaper. See the full report here: