Art and Covid-19: The Impact of Visual Art Lexicons in Communication during a Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 is the official name of a disease which was declared a pandemic on January
20, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). COVID-19 is novel but pandemics
are not. Historically, several diseases had affected the world globally in the magnitude of
a pandemic, crossing geographical, racial, class, and age boundaries. The effects of a
pandemic are intrinsic and extrinsic, visible in health, population, education, economy,
socio-cultural norms and governance. One major effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the
total lockdown of the world system for several months and a new “normal”. The
entrance of new verbal and visual lexicons in communication was a noticeable trend.
Words such as “quarantine”, “PPE”, “social distancing”, “self-isolation” and
“facemask” came into everyday usage. Also visual art lexicons played very important
roles in the communications during the pandemic. This paper through the methods of
participatory observations, interviews, visual aid (photographs) and review of literature
documented and analyzed the emergent visual art lexicons during the COVID-19
pandemic in 2020 and the impact it had on the society. The data sources included the
internet which is global. It was observed that visual artists, like other professionals,
responded promptly to the pandemic by delivering several visually communicative items
that impacted society in different ways. The various types of art rendered and how they
have affected society now and the future are discussed. From the data collected, it was
observed that a graphical image which represented the COVID-19 disease was created
and popularized by visual artists. The images identified the disease globally. There were
various art works such as cartoons, posters, paintings, sculptures, installations, videos
and exhibitions that warned and informed the society on the disease and motivated and
advocated for action to curb it. Post-COVID-19 is a reality that will naturally unfold,
therefore the paper projects into the role of art and artists in the after-math of COVID19.