No Going Back

This print captures the revolutionary spirit of 2020, and celebrates the building of collective power in order to not return to the systems of the past. Arundahti Roy explained that the pandemic “offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

In this work, I incorporated a cocoon to symbolize permanent and long-lasting transformation. A cocoon is a silky web spun around the larvae of many insects. Caterpillars emerge from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies. The word cocoon can also refer to a form of self-protection for humans.

COVID-19 caused unthinkable human tragedy and exposed the true failures and lies of the global capitalism system. Personally, I recognized the great importance of collective care. Self-care was needed, but it was not enough for communities to survive. It was necessary to move beyond individualism towards collective power building and care. The pandemic required us to actively protect the most vulnerable, while people around the world were feeling the consequences of an economic system that prioritized profits over people and the planet. Yet the 2020 moment of disillusion and fracture also became an opportunity to sow ideas for a different kind of future.