Getting Back to Normal

Civilization is simply a clearing in the forest.

Size: 60cm*50cm

Method: drawing

Medium (s): Markers and Colored Pencil on Paper

The 2020 pandemic was a shared experience in which, depending where you were, resulted in a moderate to extreme reshaping of our society. While the vast majority of people want things to “get back to normal,” without a seismic shift in how world governments approach the treatment of wildlife, land conservation, and public health, the planet could be entering an era of pandemics.

Five new diseases emerge in people each year, and each of these has the potential to develop into a global pandemic as the coronavirus did. This relationship between economy and nature, and by extension, Coronavirus, served as the inspiration for “Getting Back to Normal.” Assuming we continue to run a linear economic system on a finite planet, there will be consequences.

Here, a coronavirus station stands abandoned and covered with overgrowth. The sidewalk, buildings and walls are covered in vegetation. Human beings are nowhere to be found. This is not meant to be dystopic. Rather, it serves as a reminder that we need to live in harmony with nature. After all, civilization is simply a clearing in the forest.