The Hidden Words Of Pandemic Calligraphy
12 August, 2020
A BLUEPRINT OF ART IN ISOLATION
Faced with the panorama of global contingency, the artist and calligrapher Said Dokins collaborates with Gama Gallery and photographer Elisabeta Riccio, where they address the issue of the pandemic and the need for unity and help through art. The exhibition called ‘Together isolation’ includes collaborations with international artists from China, Italy, Mexico, and the United States, among others.
Together Isolation
We are living strange times, news and social media around the world are bombing us with data and numbers that instead of offering solutions or pacifying people, are just producing fear and uncertainty.
Under the context of a global emergency due to the pandemic, and the actions of quarantine that are being taken, we want to bring together artists, illustrators, and photographers to create and reinterpret images to show that, even with this adversity, we can collaborate to inspire and remind people that if we work together, we can go back to normality sooner.
We are glad to invite you to take part in this virtual exhibition that wants to give back some peace and hope for the people who are experiencing this pandemic. The artists intervene over pictures of different cities of Mexico and China with the intention of letting the people know that even though everyone is in their home isolated, that doesn’t mean that we have to be alone. In fact the opposite, we are together.
Ju YAn YAn. Curator
Virtual exhibition: Together, Isolated
线上展览：一起, 隔离
Date: March 30th – April 20th
时间：3月30日 – 4月20日
With Zee Of Weapon
I
While I work on this photograph, my sister is at the New York Airport, with three flights canceled and unable to return to Mexico.
To get to the airport, every time she tries to fly, she has to go through Manhattan, the city now turned into Zombie Apocalypse.
II
Our Latin alphabet added the Greek ζ (dseda), which in turn came from the Phoenician Zai and which in Aramaic means ‘weapon’.
III
The current situation of health contingency makes us think of the global scenario given by the Covid-19 pandemic, where the failure of the idea of community is evident. The border closings are no longer just for marginalized communities, the speeches of xenophobia and fascism that we have been dragging are sharpening and are cynically shown by all parties, the hypocritical security measures that expose the falsity of an expectation of global well-being and the acute economic crisis that it implies for the majority, reveal the political instrumentalization of the pandemic.
IV
Following the German philosopher Walter Benjamin, it seems that History shows us that there is no way to repair the ruins that we are leaving behind through time, and that concealment, that denial of the remains, is what appears in reality in the form of a ghost.
V
In this image, I wanted to represent the letter zee, as the record of ruthless and ghostly movements.
VI
My sister finally manages a flight, she will be quarantined at my mother’s house, while my mother will be accompanying my grandfather, who has to use an oxygen tank.
VII
Haze in our heads
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