Mask-Age

About this painting

Every circle in this painting is two things at once — the shape of a mask, and the shape of the world. Read it anticlockwise from the bottom left and it becomes a calendar of 2020.

The first circle is Christmas and Chinese New Year, where the contagion began. The faces are human-to-human transmission — and also the connections lost to social distancing and isolation. The yellow circle at the top left is healthcare: the cross, and the frontline workers across the globe. The buildings with lighted windows are people confined to work, and the ritual of diyas and candles lit in hope.

Then the wifi symbol, because everything ran through it — work, education, shopping; the world still turns on it. The ship is drifting: pandemic fatigue, mental fog, the feeling of emotions that would not end. Buddha is mindfulness. The red and yellow globe is laptops and web series taking over our lives. Then birds and nature recuperating and healing.

The last circle is a ray of hope, and the rays are vaccines.