MORTEM RENOVAMEN: THE COVID DIARIES

Pandemics have been responsible for an unimaginable loss of life for centuries yet they have also been an unequivocal force for change. Pandemics are an unforgiving reminder of the fragile duality of our existence; with every change something dies and yet, something is born. In Mortem|Renovamen: The Covid Diaries, I explore this concept in both an individual, emotional contemplation as well as a reflection of the national events inescapable within the Covid-19 pandemic.

As this series of work maneuvers between the internal and external experience of Covid-19, each painting serves as a visual diary entry. Private contemplations regarding loneliness, grief and hope interchange with reflections of national events involving racial inequity, presidential obscenity, record unemployment, unprecedented effects of climate change, and debilitating uncertainty.

The foundation of these urban contemporary paintings are constructed from layers of found street posters from the communities of San Francisco and Oakland. The found material serves as a time marker; many of the collected posters are a reflection of the awakening of racial rage and inequality along with flyers of public events that dissipated as Covid-19 overwhelmed the county. Each painting is physically distressed, torn and sanded down to the point of deconstruction. So much so, the viewer questions whether the work is intentionally breaking down or if something new is on the verge of breaking through. With Mortem|Renovamen, the answers lies within the duality of both.