5 Artists Who Got Inspired by the Pandemic and Unleashed their Creative Powers

Featured image: A mural by artist Lionel Stanhope, in Ladywell, south-east London, England.
Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Staying positive this year was testing. Everybody tries to find joy and comfort in what they like – be it food, baking a loaf of bread, the smile of a loved one, reading their favourite book or (re)watching their favourite movie. Many find solace in (re)connecting their creative side and decided to make the jump to unleash their creative powers. Art is powerful, and art can soothe or act as a catalyst to express the felt emotions. Featured here are 5 .ART adopters, who decided to find the pandemic’s silver lining and create, talk, document, and harness the powers of art.

Pandemic: an outbreak of a disease [COVID 19 | Coronavirus in 2020] prevalent over a whole country or the world.

COVIDEO19

The genesis of this project is relatively straightforward but doesn’t lack impact. 3 contributing curators, Amanda Abi Khalil, Bianca Bernado & Cherine Karam, are behind the COVIDEO19 project. Showcasing the work of many emerging and established artists from more than 20 countries, this project started on March 21st 2020 and ended on July 21st 2020 – showcasing 118 COVID-19 contaminated reading of contemporary art videos. They mentioned on the website “ Art history has been shaped by major crises […] we curated a list of videos, old and more recent, and tied them to the collective and universal emotion ardently felt around the globe.”

We appreciate how they (re)contextualise many artists’ work, which felt so relevant in these testing times.

You can find out more about the project Instagram @covideo19.art or look at the videos on covideo19.art

TIMOTHY DILL

Behind the lens, Timothy Dill decided to visually try to make sense of “what seems to be a world upside down.” Dill’s project titled “A Pandemic Journal, Resilience Through Struggle & Loss” takes a documentary approach to how the pandemic has considerably impacted everyday life. This journal serves a dual purpose “document the concrete reality” and is also “a self-survey of his emotional interpretations”. While he initially captured the images from his vehicle mostly for personal safety reason as well as to follow the social distancing rules, he then stepped out to captures moments that are reflecting resilience.

It has been compelling to see how the pandemic has been and continue to be documented. It will be even more interesting to see what glimpse at all those everyday images will make it through time and will become an archive of the 2020 global pandemic.

You can explore his photography projects on Instagram @tdill26 or look at his work and the full project on his website tdill.art

CARLOS DONADUZZI

His quiet and meditative images became tools for our own self-reflection. His series Isolation confessions & Here and there, are at the same time personal testimonies of the impact of the pandemic on oneself and convey experiences that many can relate to. Confine and social isolation how to we connect with our environment, the silence or with others via a screen.

The intimate images are powerful and generate, in many, a sentiment of belonging to a community. We are all together in this and that no matter our differences, our current experiences are similar. We share something.

His work can be appreciated on his .art website donaduzzi.art or on Instagram under the handle @dzzcarlos.

SEAN BASIL MCGIVER

It is with his Lockdown series that Sean Basil McGiver copes with the current events. An active member of the local Pines art scene since 2008, art-making has been part of his daily life as both an artist and a professor of visual art. His limited-edition series combining painting and photography depicted the feelings and emotions and the need to express oneself creatively to process those emotions and feelings.

Look into his universe by visiting his website seanbasilmcgiver.art or following his on Instagram @seanmcgiver.

STRANGE TIME

Philip Loersch, Von Don, 2020

This multifacet project is a source of inspiration and connection while we all feel isolated. As their website mention so clearly there were looking to create “a place to show what creative energy is aimed at today and how the artist sees this time. Because in times of uncertainty, art has been one of the first places that tries to shine a light into the darkness to help us find the way to reveal a new world and a new system of relations. The project was created on the principle of a constantly developing living organism, and so of the virus itself, but as an artistic antidote.”

We love looking into their curated exhibitions and reading the answers of many creative and inspiring people – 3 questions & 3 answers. Why do you make art? What changes can art make to life? How would you characterize the time we live in? 3 questions to which we can all relate. 3 questions that we should all answers to create our own testimony of this unusual year!

You can discover more about this project on its website strangetime.art or by looking at it on Instagram under @artlaboratory.com.ua.

ABOUT THIS SECTION

The .art Domains has always been dedicated to connect, empower, and support its community members and foster a sense of belonging to the art world. This new section celebrates creators that have recently joined our community. It is our way to give back and shine a light on amazing creatives, especially in these testing times! If you would like to be featured in a post, please take a look at our submission guidelines here.

.ART Team