All posts tagged: Corona Virus

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.12.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 21

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.12.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 21

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Not much to say this week, except we’re all in the thick of it and 20,000 are dead in the US.

Stay positive, stay strong, say a prayer for the families who have lost someone and the medical personnel who are working so hard. Happy Easter! Happy Passover!

Check out Andrea Bocelli singing live from Milan today. Love to you all.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring P.V, Devils Fools, Hoacs, and Patrick Picou Harrington.

Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
P.V (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Devils Fools. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hoacs (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Patrick Picou Harrington in Albany, NY. (photo © Bobbie Siegel)
Isolation. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. April 2020. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Matthew Burrows: #ArtistSupportPledge / Dispatch From Isolation # 20

Matthew Burrows: #ArtistSupportPledge / Dispatch From Isolation # 20

When times are suddenly hard, you have to be creative.

Many artists have gone without work in the last month across the US and Europe and elsewhere – their freelance jobs have dried up, their side hustle stopped hustling.

Artist Matthew Burrows from Sussex in England has come up with a way for a growing number of artists to band together and help one another, to alleviate a little of the financial insecurity, to gain greater exposure to potential buyers, and strengthen their personal networks with one another. What was initially a local effort appears to be successfully spreading internationally.

The ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE is not complicated and depends on the honor system. Post one of your works on Instagram for sale at 200 dollars (or Euros) and use the hashtag #artistsupportpledge.  Every time your sales reach $1000, you pledge to spend $200 on another artists work.

This sounds like an excellent way to leverage support and circulate at least some wealth in the greater artist community. Also, there is nothing like have the great satisfaction of supporting one another, and feeling supported.

If you have $200 to buy art, we heartily encourage you to check out #artistsupportpledge today!

#artistsupportpledge on Instagram

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Phlegm’s Visual Corona Diary Accompanies You/ Dispatch From Isolation # 15

Phlegm’s Visual Corona Diary Accompanies You/ Dispatch From Isolation # 15

Your opportunity to put your creativity to the test is a daily undertaking these days thanks to unprecedented social and economic change – and a global health threat. London-based Street Artist and fine artist Phlegm says that he has been finding his balance while staying inside with his pregnant partner and two-year-old son – or at least trying to.

Phlegm. Don’t Panic. (photo © Phlegm)

Balancing internal worries and turmoil with quotidian home responsibilities and family care, he says that finding a creative way to process his thoughts and feelings has been imperative in this period of self-isolation. The first step he realized is one that many of us have been learning – the value of implementing a routine.

“I tried to take time out to do an hour of work a day but every time I tried to engrave or do the very detailed work I realised my hands were shaking too much,” he says. “So instead I thought maybe I can just paint and draw something small and loose that’s kind of cathartic. I can use it to process my thoughts like meditating.”

Phlegm. Planting Seed. (photo © Phlegm)

Luckily for fans of his darkly whimsical illustrations, Phlegm’s agile pace and his knack for spot-on allegory have kept up with the quickly changing news these last few weeks, addressing everything from fears of isolation to the comedy of social distancing and irrational hoarding — and the appreciation we all feel for those in the medical profession who are caring for our neighbors, friends, family, and each other.

“We isolated fairly early because we saw things escalated pretty fast and with knowing little about how this could affect pregnancy we started about a week before the official lock-down in London,” he says in-between his sketching.  “I think the first week I was entirely in fight or flight mode. Securing online weekly deliveries, clearing out the garden to make it toddler-friendly and just grafting every waking hour. By the second-week official lockdown was being talked about and people were just queuing for miles to get a year’s supply of toilet roll,” he says with only a little exaggeration.

Phlegm. Home Improvements. (photo © Phlegm)

Using his social media postings as daily communication with the greater world, one by one his monochromatic machinations of whimsy and everyday dilemmas assure you that your strange little thoughts and dramatic fears are, at the very least, normal.

“Maybe because it’s less isolating to feel the same feelings as a group and realise you’re not alone trapped in a personal hell. It now feels like a diary which is a bizarre mixture of banality and terror,” he says.

Phlegm. All The Mothers. (photo © Phlegm)

“I try to keep the work honest and working every day helps. Emotions and actual events are so fast-moving its best to just work day-to-day. Sometimes it’s the very ordinary things that can carry a lot of emotional weight. The only thing I’m trying to be aware of is that people are upset and vulnerable so I tend to sketch out two or three a day and then choose one to ink up. This way I can try and balance the humour with the fear.”

He says that he’ll continue this daily diary for the foreseeable future, giving you a peek into his state of being. His new practice is a genuine “live blogging” with illustrations that describe many powerful and banal aspects of our daily living that is turning long-term – a reflection of the inside life as well as the outside life.

Phlegm. Stay In. (photo © Phlegm)

“I want to be realistic and honest, which at times has to include some very dark days but I don’t want to fuel fears and negatively influence people. I think humour is always helpful in times like these, to laugh and cry at the same time. I think also something that happens in huge emotional events like this is that our thoughts become so overwhelmed it’s impossible to express or sort through any of it.”

“I think art can sometimes just give you a place to put it all.”

Phlegm. Should Shave. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Postman Gets Further Away. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Social Distance. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Clearing The Attic. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Nightmare. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Dry Hands. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. National Health Service. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Comfort Eating. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. New Day, New Me. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Comfort Eating Again. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. I’m Going Shopping. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Home. (photo © Phlegm)
Phlegm. Socializing. (photo © Phlegm)
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#Tag Street Art in Tel Aviv / Dispatch From Isolation # 9

#Tag Street Art in Tel Aviv / Dispatch From Isolation # 9

Here are new pieces on street walls from the Street Artist named #Tag in Israel, who is interpreting art-world and TV icons through the lense of the current Covid-19 crises. With new pieces on the street in Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, and Jaffa, these three are as international as they are local.

@tagstreetart “After Breaking Bad” Tel-Aviv. March 2020 (Photo © TagStreetArt)

We asked him about these new pieces and his experience in the last few days as a Street Artist in Isreal, where new coronavirus guidelines are edging the country closer to total shut down .

@tagstreetart “After Magritte”. Detail. Tel-Aviv. March 2020 (Photo © TagStreetArt)


Brooklyn Street Art: Has it been difficult to do work on the street, or has it been easier?  
#Tag: I will describe it more like weird. I pasted all the three works at the beginning of the Coronavirus in Israel. I think after the Breaking Bad work, a few days after, the quarantine started. In general, it was kind of the same, but a weird feeling in general, like literally the virus was in the air.

@tagstreetart “After Magritte” Tel-Aviv. March 2020 (Photo © TagStreetArt)

Brooklyn Street Art: What do you hope people will experience when they discover your work?
#Tag
: In general all my messages are meant with a sense of humor. I believe that art should deliver positive messages but not necessarily in an obvious way. I saw that that’s exactly what happened with my works, from things people have said on social media, and I am very happy about that. 
During these days we need to stay positive, and after almost a full quarantine I started to create digital works and use Facebook / Instagram as my digital wall 🙂

@tagstreetart “After Frida” Tel-Aviv. March 2020 (Photo © TagStreetArt)
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Lapiz “Life In Time Of Corona” Hamburg/Dispatch From Isolation #8

Lapiz “Life In Time Of Corona” Hamburg/Dispatch From Isolation #8

The intervention “Life in Time of Corona” is Lapiz’s attempt to fight the feeling of isolation and loneliness.

“I created and glued it up a day before the first phase of lockdown happened here in Hamburg, just in front of one of the biggest supermarkets in town,” he tells us.

Lapiz. “Life In Time Of Corona”. Hamburg, Germany. (photo © Lapiz)

The young woman exists with a margin of danger following her – a buffer band of gold that prevents any other person from getting to close. Of course, the hermit-like among the human family have been practicing social distancing for years, but for most people it’s new and unusual.

For most of us the time of self-isolation, quarantine, and illness is ahead of us and we have no idea how long this might take. We can stay in contact with loved-ones, family, friends, and almost forgotten acquaintances on the other side of the planet via email, skype or video link.

This might also be a great moment of solidarity and an opportunity for empathy, but the minimum safety distance of 6 feet also excludes affection, warmth and closeness.

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Dispatch From Isolation #6 : Rich Go to Head of Line for Testing of Covid-19

Dispatch From Isolation #6 : Rich Go to Head of Line for Testing of Covid-19

Why does it seem the rich and famous get tested for coronavirus while others don’t?

That is an excellent question from The Boston Globe. Others are beginning to ask this question, including The New York Post , The Guardian, and The LA Times,

Even the New York Times says “Need a Coronavirus Test? Being Rich and Famous May Help.”

Street Artist Trustocorp shows us how art reflects life in these messages on new signposts in the street. If only the corporate cable news were so clear.

Trusto Corp (photo courtesy of the artist)

How does this situation happen so seamlessly and without your involvement? Quick answer: Privatization of Health Care. 

That’s why Medicare for All is sounding better every day. It’s so much more obvious as we watch the unfolding disaster in a country that has allowed every aspect of its social net to be sold off to private companies in the last 40 years, turned into for-profit ventures, not service to citizens. Certainly not poor citizens, working poor citizens, non-citizens, middle class citizens.

Here we see art reflecting life. And death.



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Dispatch From Isolation #4 : A New Mask to Save Thousands

Dispatch From Isolation #4 : A New Mask to Save Thousands

There’s professional disinformation, and then there is simply disingenuous.

This native New Yorker told us Covid-19 was a hoax, and now New York is on its way to being the epicenter for the greatest outbreak, with officials harrowingly planning for 140,000 hospital beds for our neighbors, friends, coworkers, family, with 40,000 of them needing to be in intensive care.

“Probably more than half of all New Yorkers will be infected with this disease,” said Mayor Bill DiBlasio yesterday.

Graffiti writer Terror 161 favors the digital expression of political critique these days, and he shared this simple image with us yesterday. Since we’re not going outside to capture new Street Art for you, we thought we’d share this visual commentary with you.

Unidentified artist

How’s the nations’ supply of duct tape, we wonder. Because we know we don’t have enough ventilators for sick people. Or masks for that matter.

Medicare for All sounds better every day, doesn’t it?

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