I here want to salute the brave artists who used their talents to capture the inhumanity and essential insanity of lockdowns. My favourite is the “guerilla mask force”, an artistic idea that apparently started in Switzerland but spread all over Europe.
what this guerilla mask force does is to walk through the center of towns in a militaristic robotic manner whilst a metallic voice from a boombox urges the population not to feel, not to procreate, not to touch, and not to live, because all that is deadly. It captures the dehumanising effect of social distancing and the dystopia of a medicalised world. It is a very dignified form of artistic protest.
Less dignified but also powerful are the protest songs, like this one from Eric Clapton and Van Morrison that tells people to choose freedom over slavery.
One of course has street art, such as this one in Ireland, a touching mural of an enduring human spirit:
There is then the ‘inversion’ art based on twisting the mainstream narrative onto itself with comic effect, for instance by showing photos of how far the lockdown-fanatics have gone:
Finally, there is the world of cartoon art, which has given us many classics on the absurdity of what is going on. One of my favourites:
I happen to know of musicals under construction on this topic and can’t wait to see and hear the final product. Keep ‘m coming, dear artists! This is your time to shine.