Jairo Salazar, art historian and instructor for Coquitlam College and Mobil Art School, will be delivering a digital seminar on Art in Times of Crisis in partnership with the Richmond Art Gallery on Aug. 25.

The webinar will explore viruses, plagues, illnesses, and pandemics in art, and is the second in a series of talks which, he says, “engages topics to audiences who are not necessarily familiarized with the world of art in a non-traditional venue.”

A gateway to the past

The catalyst for the webinar was the idea that viewing creative output in times of crisis can help us better understand the current pandemic. “It is looking at the way artists cope with challenging situations and back at the history of art as a way to understand our current times,” explains Salazar. “The idea is to focus on specific visualizations of plagues or pandemics either in art or in popular culture. I want to make a correlation to the past on how we dealt with things beyond our control.”

Reflections on various art pieces will explore mortality and fear of the unknown. One piece that will be examined, entitled A Cluster of 17 Cases (2018) by Blast Theory, is based on the SARS pandemic. It depicts an entire row of rooms in a hotel that had to be quarantined, and is an investigation of how a small cluster can get out of control – a message that is profoundly relevant to the present.

“Something that is overwhelming about this current situation is the possibility of facing the virus, when the virus has no face,” says Salazar. “ So, we imagine ways of understanding what this invisible enemy is. [The exhibit aims to] find the way artists make visible the invisible.”

Jairo Salazar hopes that reflections on various art pieces will lend to the overall exploration of mortality and fear of the unknown. | Photo courtesy of Jairo Salazar

Coping through creativity

Artwork, says Alazar, is like an extension of therapy, and an expression of comfort or relief for many people. During the uncertainty currently blanketing the world, art is an experience intended to be conserved and lasting. He believes that part of the respite art offers is the ability to recognize recurring themes, emotions, and fears, and find our experiences reflected in them.

There is also a lesson to be learned from discussing the history of art in relation to pandemics, plagues and illnesses, since viewing the past can provide a scaffold for how to feel and what to do when we cannot make sense of the things around us.

“When we ignore the past, we end up making the same mistakes over and over again,” notes Salazar. “It is poignant to know about history with images, objects and visual culture. These are critical times to consider history again, we move so fast now, and things are so impermanent that we tend to forget very quickly, and it is important to learn how to conserve memories for future generations,” he adds.

Transcending borders

A benefit that has come out of the pandemic is the ability for a global community to find comfort together. Instead of geographic barriers restricting participation, Salazar has had people join in from over five different countries for the series so far. He believes that this has allowed a greater conversation to be held around the response to crisis and art, one which transcends borders.

Salazar hopes that audiences come away from the webinar with the notion that inspiration can come from the most difficult of times. “By looking back in time and at the material and the visual ways we have represented the world around us, we can leave traces for future generations on the ways we managed and the ways we expressed our feelings on a challenging situation” he says. “My purpose with the webinar is to show people that in any time of crisis be it social, political or health, creativity flourishes. No matter how challenging times are, we think of expressing our innermost human emotions, feelings, anxieties and fears.”

For more information, please visit www.richmondartgallery.org/toc2