Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Museum is stepping into new territory with an art exhibit taking on the monumental task of capturing life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Titled "Stand & Witness: Art in the Time of COVID-19," the installation brings together art that delves into the shared global crisis, according to a report from GPB.
Featuring photographic landscapes that Sheila Pree Bright created, which appear blurred, as if one is squinting through dirty spectacles, the works embody her grappling with the tumultuous events of 2020. Bright, reading W.E.B. DuBois and reflecting on land and climate, found herself submerged in the throes of creating amidst a surge of social justice activism ignited by George Floyd's death. "I was thinking a lot of stuff because, you know, George Floyd happened," Pree Bright told GPB. "I was thinking about that, about Black Lives Matter and how that kind of changed the world globally because we were in COVID."
With life under the new normal, artists like Jeremy Bolen and Jamie Allen contribute to the discourse by offering an immersive experience that replicates the confinement of an airplane cabin. Just choose a seat from the four rows of actual airlines seats, and you're transported into the narrative of The Impossibility of a Planet, a video installation examining planetary challenges exposed by the pandemic. Allen emphasizes the interconnectedness that the crisis highlighted, saying, “We're all connected to each other and have various attachments and responsibilities,” as per GPB.
Meanwhile, at the exhibit's core is the recognition of artists as frontline storytellers during times of isolation. The CDC Museum's tribute underscores how the creative community processed the sweeping pandemic. Indeed, for many, like Allen, the lack of in-person interaction meant buckling under the absence of the casual but critical exchanges that spur creativity. He recounts how interviewed individuals lamented the missed "water cooler, the pub after the meeting, the coffee chat," crediting these social interactions with fostering motivation and innovation – all of which suffered amidst quarantine, as reported by GPB.
Louise Shaw, the curator for the CDC Museum, conceived the exhibit with a desire for artists to echo their introspections during the early stages of the pandemic. Instead of focusing on personal health battles, this collection narrates the artists' journey through those unprecedented times. "This is not an art exhibit about people who had COVID in their personal, you know, their medical journeys," she explained to GPB. “It's really about how they spent their time during the pandemic, thinking about, processing this global experience."
