Greetings, it’s great to see you here! Have you been scouring the internet, waiting for your favorite outlets to publish new content, waiting for Street Art United States to bring you the latest and greatest artistic interventions from around the globe? Of course you have. We all have. For the most part, we’re all locked on the same boat, self-isolating in our homes at the hands of the ever-escalating coronavirus pandemic.
In New York City, the vaunted epicenter of the United States’ battle against coronavirus, and also the place I happen to call home, my experience with COVID-19 has bowled me over in waves. Sometimes I’m anxious, perhaps the most omnipresent emotion this global crisis has spurred. More often though, I’m grateful for my friends and for the food in my fridge, fascinated by this opportunity to witness history in action, and occupied with the ceaseless hours available to explore my inner machinations.
This morning, while my roommates and I made our weekly trek to re-up at the grocery store, a new sensation smacked me. Every person on the street wore a mask. Many stores had lines where people stood six feet apart in an attempt to enforce social distancing by limiting the number of customers who entered at once. City-installed news kiosks and even the lights atop police vans flashed the same message: Do your part. Wash your hands. One even offered that optimistic hashtag, #AloneTogether.
#AloneTogether didn’t hit me until this morning. Logically, I understood that social distancing is a selfless act in its own right because it protects the most vulnerable members of our population. Still, community-enforced selflessness never felt so selfless to me in reality. Of course we would stay inside, where else would we go? Here in New York, all ‘non-essential’ businesses are shuttered.
Every week of ‘regular life,’ the media mobs some hot topic issue. Depending on the issue, certain segments of the population latch onto the news. This, I think, is the first time I’ve ever witnessed the entire world come together to process one incident as a whole. I was six years old when 9/11 happened, I only remember getting good grades on my teacher-mandated journal entries in the weeks that followed every time I gave them a strong air of patriotism. Now, at 24, I am very much awake and cognizant, able to understand how much meaning all these masks and lines and comforting smiles from strangers truly carry.
In a moment like this, rife with tragedy and fear, I find it crucial to focus on feelings more profound.
How incredible it is, the way human beings can band together against a common foe! Of all the work that could be made of the myriad emotions surrounding coronavirus, no one sums it up quite so succinctly as AMADAMA has in the heart of Milan.
A press release on the artist’s behalf explains that he “decided to use his time wisely,” capitalizing on the unstructured time lockdown provides by arranging a guerrilla video titled “CORONAVIRUS SUCKS.” The projection occupied “ a giant facade where a commercial publicity banner was recently removed, most likely due to the poor public visibility caused by the coronavirus.” This facade was located “on an ex-noisy neighborhood for nightlife and tourist landmark, the Navigli (conceived by the grande maestro, Leonardo Da Vinci).” The press release noted that “Italy is now on its fourth week of home quarantine, smart working and school closures, and a week from the complete lockdown. Now the city is deserted as if it’s gone into hibernation…”
The “vivid pink screen” that these words flashed upon oscillated between the phrase in three languages: English, Spanish, and Italian. “CORONAVIRUS SUCK THIS, CORONAVIRUS CHUPASNOSLA, CORONAVIRUS SUCACELO,” AMADAMA’S piece taunted. It’s worth noting that these are the national languages of the three nations topping the globe in coronavirus cases: the United States, Spain, and Italy, all in that order.
“AMADAMA (@iamamadama) is a versatile artist who explores various fields as his craving leads to,” the press release concludes. The artist’s Instagram features stark installations around Ibiza proclaiming bold phrases like “it was magical when the rich and the poor danced together” and “VIP is a loser concept.” AMADAMA certainly appears to be a man of the people. “In the past he was into applying technology to creativity,” the press release explains, “but this year he is seemingly more into guerrilla installations. But hey, who knows about tomorrow…”
Good point, who does know about tomorrow? Not our leaders, not epidemiologists, not AMADAMA, and certainly not me. All we can do is sit, wait, and be kind to each other in the meantime. I’ll be here hoping, too, that this kindness and global sense of community prevails long past the pandemic’s prime. We cannot allow our collective amnesia to overtake all the ground that we’ve made in our quest against this disease over the past month. We must remember the sentiment of this simple installation, that we are human. We are complex, compassionate, and fiercely strong. Coronavirus can suck it, as can anything else that seeks to destroy us, so long as that thing doesn’t end up being ourselves.
AMADAMA: instagram
