We can do it
Artist Name: Victoria Awode, Luz Navarro, Justin Tamayo, Rhythm Thamid
Artist Statement
The purpose of our monument is to bring more awareness about the events and effects of Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 virus first became known when it began on January 9th 2019 in Wuhan, China with a low 59 cases. It then began to spread around the world through airport travel, because it wasn’t until January 21,2019 that Chinese Scientist Confirmed that COVID-19 can be transmitted from person to person. By this time coronavirus had already killed 4 and infected more than 200 in China, and a Washington state resident became the first person in the United States to have the virus. On January 23, 2019 Wuhan was put under quarantine but in those 2 days, 13 more people died and an additional 300 were sickened. With a worldwide death toll of more than 200 and an exponential jump to more than 9800 cases, the WHO finally declared a public health emergency about coronavirus. The human-to-human transmission of the virus was quickly spreading and the virus could be found in the United States, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan by January 31, 2019. This led to many countries implementing air-travel restrictions and the Trump administration issuing a travel Ban on Non-US Citizens Traveling from Europe. Soon after this there was a stay-at-home order and nationwide quarantine took effect.
Our monument represents that we as people are stronger than coronavirus and we will survive and heal from the pandemic. It’s to honor the essential workers who put their lives at risk during the pandemic and to remember the people who lost their lives to the virus. It’s to honor the more than 475,000 Americans that have died from the virus (an average of 50 deaths every hour). To show the world that we will never forget the social, emotional, and physical impact of the virus. The monument shows that even if we are staggered by individual losses, and are buckling under the weight of collective grief, that the pain is shared, people don’t have to suffer alone and that there is hope. As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris illuminated 400 lanterns lining the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, each representing 1,000 lives lost to Covid-19, to acknowledge people’s pain. Joe Biden spoke during this event of the need to mend America’s soul. “To heal, we must remember. It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation.” The purpose of our monument is to acknowledge the pain and suffering that occurred during the pandemic so people can learn to live again. Our Covid-19 monument is meant to recognize all kinds of heroes from the pandemic who have worked tirelessly to keep America afloat and people safe and healthy.
The monument is dedicated to the frontline workers during the pandemic. These hard-working heroes are keeping Americans fed, picking up their trash, providing them life-saving medicine, delivering their groceries and packages, preparing their food, cleaning their hospitals, caring for those who are most vulnerable, and keeping us safe—often while earning low wages and few benefits. From nurses to Uber drivers, these people need recognition they deserve with this monument. There can be no way to ever fully repay the essential workers who aided in our recovery from this devastating pandemic. These true heroes continue to aid and inspire us and they have our utmost respect. To honor them, we want them to create a monument to stand for all time as the country becomes stronger and better.
The monument will show nurses and doctors helping patients. Without them many people would not survive due to the virus. Our professors also played a big role as they have to adapt to this new virtual system and try to educate many students who have been going through depression. Staying inside and learning online was not a positive topic for most people. These professors had their virtual office hours more frequently and even reached out by their phone number to make sure we are learning.
Our Monument is located in front of an emergency entrance at a Hospital. It is placed here because this was and still is the home of patients who were infected with Covid-19. This is also a second home for first line workers who risk their lives and wellbeing in order to help patients in need with covid and prevent it from spreading. Many people working in the hospital, like doctors and nurses, are working long and tireless hours to care and look out for patients who were infected and due to strict rules, many patients are alone and are unable to see their loved ones. Many of the hospital staff do their best to accommodate their patients and find a way for them to see their loved ones through video chat, by either using zoom, FaceTime, google meet, etc. Having our Monument in front of an emergency entrance at a hospital is and would be a reminder in the future about all that has happened. Not only is our monument going to acknowledge first line workers, it will also acknowledge some experience that people have felt during the pandemic.
Our monument would be about what we have suffered by staying indoors, having meetings and classes online, staying 6 feet away from everyone else, wearing a mask, etc. Another reason for putting our Monument here is because this is also the place where the COVID vaccine is being given. Having the vaccine is a hope to many people that the pandemic will come to an end someday and that what once was our Borland will soon get to be. Our monument would last over a decade for many future generations to see. It would be a reminder of what had happened and how much many people came together through this tragic pandemic. Our monument would be 12 feet high and 6 feet wide. It would be large enough for everyone passing by to see. When people pass by, they would see and observe it, they will acknowledge all the people who have risked their safety for the safety of others and see them as heroes. They would recognize our monument as a symbol of hope that even during a pandemic, people came together in the time of need.
We want people to understand how far we have come as a society during this pandemic. This pandemic was a brutal one to say the least and one that was so unique in nature because of its ability to spread so quickly and take multitudes of lives along with it. Our group process was to display the teamwork required from society as a whole needed to defeat this pandemic because a single party couldn’t do it alone. It had to be a team effort from everyone in society, regardless of political agenda, background, race or ethnicity. We were all fighting for the same cause, a return to some kind of normalcy. We took the time to account for all parties that made this possible in our monument. Essential workers played a key role in this pandemic, such as those doctors and nurses who risked their own lives to save ours. They deserved an appreciation far beyond what is acknowledged by some. We, the people, as a whole also deserve a round of applause as we had to come together and create an environment where we were more aware of our surroundings and health. We were now responsible for our friends, family and loved ones too. We took the time to think about how we could display that in our monument and truly show the effort it took to create this environment in society.
In making this monument we wanted people to understand that the pandemic is far from over. To achieve herd immunity, we still have to continue our efforts, get vaccinated and help spread awareness upon this fact. Our thoughts and actions are reflected in our monument as it displays the variety of aspects this pandemic has caused us to reflect on. We wanted our monument to be relatable and portray a message, as to why we incorporated zoom classes and social distancing. They were key factors in limiting the spread of this pandemic, even if it was a tough habit to bear in these last 2 years. We wanted people to know that it could be difficult but it was necessary to defeat this pandemic and move forward with our lives.
