Coronavirus Kingdom

From the Artist: Trying to pass the long hours of lockdown, I happened to be reading an old fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel,” and it occurred to me that we were in a similar situation figuratively speaking. So I decided to put paint on a canvas and depict this story as a visual metaphor for pandemic life. In this metaphor, Hansel and Gretel are innocent youth thrown into an unknown situation represented by the woods where they were left to face death on their own, much as people have been forced to die in isolation in the face of the unprecedented spread of coronavirus, seen floating around despite masks practically growing from trees. The children try finding their way back home but come across a land full of troublesome temptations. Starved, they eat off an old witch’s gingerbread house and take up her invitation to enter the comforting home, not anticipating the further dangers that lurk inside lockdown, such as isolation, anxiety, and depression. Furthermore, the mountaintops are representative of red and pink data curves often seen in the news regarding the spikes of the virus over time; the black bar above each is a weight that aims to literally “flatten the curve.” Across the river lies a field of lollipops, which represents a sweet solution, another tempting escape, though an imperfect one. Many of the lollipops have fallen, as the vaccine has yet to conquer all variants of the virus. In the end, however, Hansel and Gretel will eventually reach the lollipop field and life will prevail!