Corona Fication 2020

COVID-19 INSPIRED DIGITAL ART SHOW
BY BARRY SHACKLETON

COVID-19, you f@#king jerk.

G’day,

As we sit here in our isolation with the future looking about as uncertain as it ever has, we're all struggling in one way or another as this pandemic wraps around us. For some of us, adjusting to working from home is proving challenging, others have lost jobs, others have lost homes, others have lost even more, and others don’t even have this to lose. Lives have been thrown into immediate chaos and hardship, and now we sit, stiller than ever, yet not still enough - and we wait.

Then we ponder... and we think about how nice it would be to go hang with some friends, maybe hug them, or have a beer at the pub together, remember shaking hands? Imagine booking a ticket to a festival. Imagine if today you were going to that festival to see one of your favourite artists with 5000 other people all having a rad time. Maybe an art show opening tonight with free beer (beer is good), see where I'm going. Imagine. Many of the things we took for granted, are now gone - for now, but for how long? We don't know.

If we have to go down the street to get supplies, we hope we don’t see anyone for fear of catching covid19, but we also hope we do see someone because it's what we crave. There’s a feeling inside of me that is saying that things will never really be the same again - like, we’re not going back to how things were - so there is only one way to go, forward!

So we push on, and realise that through these hard times, change is happening. You know the one, 'you have to crack open to let the light in' (a rough adaptation of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics). We have cracked and we are cracking. Change is upon us, and sometimes the light can take a while to appear, but it's coming. Stay real but stay positive.

So, for now, let's get on with it...

In my pondering time, my reflection time, my solo time, has also become a creative time. I’ve been smashing through the graphic design and branding work (grateful for this), I’ve been painting some canvases, playing the drums, eating well, eating bad, getting much better at making margaritas, (and cheersing myself) and over the last few days, I’ve created a little online digital art show based around some of my favourite artists and famous artists worldwide. I’m calling it “Corona Fication 2020”, and it’s a humorous visual social commentary around the current state of the world and our minds within this pandemic - the artworks, are not to be taken too seriously. #covidism

Have fun.