Pandemic Prints

Exhibit Label: These prints reflect experiences of COVID-19 in Bogotá, Colombia; they express the voices of young people talking about the virus, even using some common slang of the city, like "what a spectacle (visaje)." My "Pfizer" piece relates directly to the way heroin is administered, as its early distributors acted as dealers who gave medicine to the highest bidder. These distribution practices let leaders take pictures of themselves administering vaccines in performative, empty, staged scenes. World powers spent vast amounts of resources to create the vaccine, dividing themselves from each other in their efforts to "take the throne" by being the first with a vaccine. Being an urban artist interested in poster art, I decided to use engravings and a manual press to replicate images. Quarantining made it possible to think of myself in a global context, asking myself questions about how long the pandemic would last and what impact it would have on the world. --Label design by exhibit curator Nancy DeJoy. Labels written by Ben Lash and his team in consultation with artist statements.