Covid-19 Visual Response

My visual response to covid-19 is a portrayal of the way quarantine is affecting many high schoolers' lives— socially and emotionally— and a message that you are not alone. This is a model bedroom of someone who might be struggling through isolation and the kind of information about the pandemic that is adding onto their unwellness. There are messages throughout the scene to promote mental health recovery and support. I chose to create this room because mental health, in general, is a topic that many people still feel uncomfortable speaking out about and needs to be normalized, and now with a pandemic, many feel as though there are bigger, more pressing things to worry about than personal wellness. My goal is to acknowledge this, and then debunk that idea because mental health is always important and valid, regardless of the situation. The messiness of the room symbolizes the uncertainty and chaos of this time and also represents the lack of motivation many students are feeling now that they're spending so much time in the comfort of their homes. The charts on the left hand wall and the statistic over the radio show the pressures and frustration of living in the nation that is getting hit the hardest and the school work on the ground and the prom dress in the corner show how students' social lives are being affected. These two aspects combined with a total lifestyle change have an impact on mental health and the message on the mirror, the note on the bed, and those on the floor and walls show it's normal and okay to be struggling during this time and we will all get through it.

To create this bedroom I used many recycled items such as a cardboard box, sketchbook paper, a dish soap bottle, magazine, and fabric. I also used plastic wrap, aluminum foil, tracing paper, a twist tie, Faber Castell pens, Prismacolor markers, an Elmer's glue stick, tape, a box cutter, scissors, and dollhouse accessories.

I began by constructing the room out of the side of a cardboard box and placed it on another cut side of the box to create three walls and a floor. I covered them in white paper to imitate the texture and color of a painted wall. I cut out a whole in the wall using the box cutters and used a piece of plastic from a soap bottle and strips of cardboard to create a window. I cut out a picture from a magazine for the view which I glued to the back wall. I then laid out the dollhouse furniture and accessories within the space taking care to arrange things so that the viewer's attention wasn't drawn to one specific place, but rather would notice all different areas and details around the room. I made the mirror out of aluminum foil and cardboard and wrote the message with a red marker to make it look as though it was written in lipstick. I made the model prom dress out of scrap fabric and a twist tie, then wrapped it in a bit of plastic for the dress's bag. To incorporate the coronavirus data, I used tracing paper to take down a real and current map and chart of US information. Finally, for the support messages, I wrote them out on extra pieces of cardboard so that they would stand out from the rest of the room. My next steps for this project could be making a crearer connection to coronavirus and being stuck at home and the impact this has on mental health.