ART In The Time of CORONA
Everyday I am hearing and reading the story of grief. Everyday people are losing their loved ones to Corona and here I am thinking and writing about ART! Seems weird but actually, it is not.
What is ART? Literature, Drawing, Painting, Craft, Music, Theatre, Movies, TV Shows and if I talk about Gen Z art then short videos of creating great content is art. A makeup artist creating Insta Reels or Youtube content is art, a homemaker uploading recipe of food is art, a vlogger sharing travel experience is art. Art is embedded in our lives and yet some of us think of Picasso first when we talk about art or maybe Leo Tolstoy! But when we really ponder then we realize that ART is around us, INSIDE US.
Let me ask what is the purpose of ART? When I ask this question I get many answers from different people. “Art tells one generation to other about the perception of society”, “Art is the fresh air in the monotonous routine”, “Art is the expression of feelings”. All great and right. In current times of COVID-19 I believe Art is playing a very important role by Engaging Anxious Hearts and by Expression.
Let me first talk about Engagement. In times like this when everyone is sitting at home during the lockdown, they turn towards TV, Netflix, Web series, Podcasts, Music or content creating Social Media Platforms. All this art engages and makes people busy. Many people isolating themselves from family due to corona turn to art to keep them sane on daily basis. Patients in the wards are listening to Bhajans and feeling positivity in the atmosphere.
Imagine a situation where you are forced to live in one room with food water and clothes but you don't have a TV, books, phone or internet. Some of them may become philosophers and others might become mad! And in a situation like COVID imagine how dangerous an idle mind could become. ART IS KEEPING US SANE.
Now let’s talk about Expression. For centuries people are expressing feelings and thoughts using Art as the channel. Sounds right. But not everyone is Da Vinci or Munshi Premchand or Michael Jackson, then how an average common person expresses? Well most of them either talk to their near ones or write in their journal. But many of them still find it difficult to do both, either they are not ready to express themselves or they don’t know how to. Then for those “ART plays GOD”
People who want more time to confront their emotions look at Art as a distraction. Like for some, on tough days an ice cream tub with binge-watching of TV shows like FRIENDS, TBBT etc could be a distraction. For others, it could be scrolling through insta or reading a book.
There are people who have lost someone close due to Corona and they are trying to bring back normalcy by watching TV shows together as a family. They know how precious art is which gives them a break from all those gloomy thoughts and helps them to spin their mind from grief to what next?
In these dark times when people are feeling hard to express, when people are struggling to accept the zillions emotions rushing down to their brain at a single time, when they are lost on what to feel and what to not, then..at that time — a para in a book expressing the exact feeling, a dialogue in a show vocalizing that expression, an actor enacting the emotion one is going through, can just break the stone wall of the heart. You can feel the pain you are avoiding, you can snap and decide to change the way you are living, you can let the feelings overcome and break you down so that the next day is like the clear sky after storm.
ART created by some can inspire thousands to break free from those feelings which are difficult to put in words or tears.
I take this chance to THANK everyone for creating small, big, good or bad ART as a form of content to engage people. THANK YOU for giving us what we need — RELIEF!
