Art's Role In Making Sense of New Realities In The Era of Covid-19
Another day of feeling off-track and trapped in the eeriness of the new reality of Covid-19. Another day of feeling overwhelmed by the news landscape and the cycle of double-checking anxiety.
Entering the third month of quarantine, I’ve now experienced all the mental, physical and psychological swirls of this pandemic to the point of asking myself: What is it that helps us find comfort as humans nowadays, not necessarily in the physical sense but rather in the spiritual one? What can we do to transcend the new reality we’re living in; overcome all those strange feelings and be OK with what is surrounding us and what is within us. What can aid us in answering all these questions and navigate us through the paranoia of uncertainty, fake news, and socio-political change?
Niki de Saint Phalle shooting at Old Master with a 22 rifle, Impasse Ronsin, June 15, 1961
In a recent discussion with my partner, one answer to these questions leaned towards the consumption and/or production of art. Yes, it is true that physical activity, meditation, or even the hug of a loved one (when possible) allows us to reconnect with ourselves. However, the essentially emotional and imaginative nature of art is perhaps one of the strongest remedies for making sense of and going beyond what we cannot grasp, both within and outside.
Living in surreal times can perhaps be understood through the lens of Surrealism itself. Put simply, its doctrine teaches us that what we know is not what it seems, that all appearances are deceitful and all our emotive responses are irrational. Kahlo, Dali, and the likes of the movement tried to make sense of this complexity by giving form to the invisible and thus getting a step closer to transcending it. Their genius is here now for us to observe and learn from. In today’s ambivalence, in a world as chaotic as you’ve experienced, Dali’s melting time in “Persistence of Memory” can give form and bring new light to your feelings of eternal languidness and boredom. Kahlo’s expression of trauma, that is far from merely evocative but truly cleansing might be your step through the door of pessimism, fear, and death.
The same applies to giving perspective to the rollercoasters of the political scene. Between a nation-centric blame game and unscientific delirium, art’s essentially political stem is here once more to give us a timeless echo on the realities of today and to reflect, something we do more and more seldomly. From Orwellian dystopia and Sophocles Antigone’s voice of rebellion towards injustice to Spike Lee’s more relevant than ever social critique in “Do the Right Thing”; literature, theatre, and cinema offer us the catharsis we don’t only look for but desperately need, whether we are facing the undoing racism in the US or the power games of the immigrant crisis.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say that art suddenly gained relevance in the current advent of the novel coronavirus. What I am saying is that today we need it more than ever. Art gives shape to emotions and ritualizes states of being which in turn allows us to transcend affective and intellectual situations. Far from being solely escapist, art is here to ground and inspire us.
Still from Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”, 1989
I recall a thought I had when recently reading “The Colossus of Maroussi” by Henry Miller. The narrator is constantly expressing his exaltation of Greece and its timeless beauty to the extent of slight exaggeration, at least from my point of view as a Greek. However, who wouldn’t be enchanted by life and its purest manifestations when the Second World War is marching with big steps? Who wouldn’t resort to leading a life with certain principles when destruction is so close? These thoughts brought a different perspective to my quarantine resolutions and morning strolls. Literature gave me the possibility to mold affective states and come to realizations about how to make the best of this unusual time and what to want from the future. Undeniably, life imitates art.
Art makes us dream and wish for a better world, process, and imagine other ways of being. Contemporary art does this by answering to the primordial purpose of art which is to make us see, to render visible (even what is so present and obvious). Olafur Eliasson and his decomposition of light pushes us to re-see what allows us to see - or see ourselves see - in the most inspiring way, reuniting us with the most primal elements of life and thus our humanity. Similarly, James Turrel and his framing of natural elements in order to feel space guide us into reconnecting with the environment: us that live far from nature we find it in museums. By environment I don’t wish to limit the term to the climate discourse but aim to address more broadly everything that is surrounding us. Through an attempt to come closer to it we are brought back to the state of mind of being present and conscious. And this is necessary to spark creative processes leading to disruptive transformation.
Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project @ Tate Modern, 2003
So, what some call little utopias - but that are actually fed with and feed reality - restore our faith for something better. In 2020, we do not want to return to the old way of doing, once this pandemic is over. We demand a new reality.
In that sense art is resistance. The presence and manifestation of culture helps us survive and through hope and imagination it pushes us to create change and innovate. It is not surprising that some of the greatest change-making practices or ventures were born in times of big shifts.
As found on political artist’s and activist’s, Tania Bruguera’s website:
“If the world is to change for the better
it must start with a change in human
consciousness, in the very humanness of
modern man.
”