A poem to Covid
“Missed”
Missed, the smile on your face,
your eyes are deep like the starring night,
you said you missed my warm hugs.
I said I missed your warm hands.
I missed the gentle touch of winds.
I got tired of the cold screen.
like a bird missed the sky, I misses the free air and you.
Sketches
Final Presentation
Artist Statement
My body of work is a personal emotional response to the changes brought by Covid these days. Both design and material choices accomplish the poem about my desire for hugs. My design gets inspired by previous assignments, using zero-waste material, and stuffing the gloves just like the Avatar project.
My design is plastic surgeon gloves growing out of a sweater. I filled the gloves with colourful wool, representing the desire and passion inside me. It has been a hard time, and it is these people around me who made me believe that the pandemic will be over and the city would recover eventually. Hence, plastic gloves are symbols of an invisible hand growing out of my body, expressing how grateful and lucky I am to get surrounded by all the lovely people during this tough time. Another reason to create these hands is that I feel skinship is something I missed during Covid, I wanted to hug my friends and my families, but these lovely greetings faded away due to Covid.
The process was fun but challenging. After making the prototypes in muslin, I started on my final garment, and sewing the plastic was challenging. I used a glue gun in the end to solve the problems. Material-wise, I chose to blow some gloves to give a transparent and light feeling, and I filled the rest with fibre to help the structure stand.
Above all, my work examines transformation of interactions post Covid. It is a snap shot in time and incorporates a unique sense of emotional significance. And I hope it can bring a sense of warmness to these who still live in the shade of disease and distance.
