“COVID-19: Labor Camp Report” Captions

Piotr Szyhalski, the artist behind “COVID-19: Labor Camp Report,” released each poster in a daily Instagram post accompanied by a caption on Instagram. We have organized those captions as they originally appeared into folders by month below.

March 24, 2020: Long Live Our Banks!
Pondering the notion casually floated by our “leadership” that some will need to die in order to save the “economy”...
March 25, 2020: Open it Up!
March 26, 2020: Your DEATH is Their PROFIT.
I drew the image of the coffin with a dollar sign on it in 2015 for a project entitled “THEM,” also known as “The Banner Project.” I can’t stop thinking about how frighteningly specific it seems today. The debasing mathematics of death and profit. The warped logic of perverted ideology. The rampant thievery, and lies.
March 27, 2020: GOOD MORNING!
Good Morning! This one is a little different. Acknowledging the ritual of morning onslaught: Numbers, anxiety, more numbers, fear, numbers.
March 28, 2020: LEADER of The Free World!
Winning it!
March 29, 2020: Stay Home!
At the edge of time.
March 30, 2020: PLAGUE
I was listening to a brief interview Noam Chomsky gave on the subject of the Coronavirus pandemic yesterday. He kept mentioning the concept of Neoliberal Plague. This drawing is about the Real Plague of which COVID-19 is merely a symptom.
March 31, 2020: Numbers Tree
The image of a tree with its limbs cut off had been haunting me recently. It surfaces in different places and contexts. It was in the landscape of the second drawing in the Covid Report series, and also is a book cover image for a collection of poems by Jesse Lee Kercheval called “Year By Year: A Life.” In this drawing I am making a more direct connection to The Tree of Jesse: depiction of a tree growing out of the body of Jesse of Bethlehem. This vision is a kind of precursor of the idea of “family tree,” except in my drawing it reveals the numbers of deaths flowing out of severed limbs of the tree. From left to right the numbers are: Italy, The World, China, Poland, USA, and the state of Minnesota. I check the data daily, sometimes multiple times each day, and I use the nCoV2019.live site for that. The site allows you to customize the view, and puts selected locations at the top of the page, producing a user defined experience of suffering. The 6 numbers in the image are my “top list.” This in and of itself feels twisted in how technology filters our sense of reality. Which is why in my drawing the body of Jesse is replaced by a smartphone.
April 1, 2020: 6ft. apart.
Everything that can be perverted, will be perverted. Saw the photographs of parking lots in Las Vegas yesterday, with the social distancing lines painted on the ground, so that people without homes can sleep while adhering to the pandemic safety rules. We are living in the grotesque abundance of wrong.
April 2, 2020: ADDRESS TO THE NATION.
Drowning in poison.
April 3, 2020: COVID COMMUNION
Amen.
April 4, 2020: WAR!
Once the issue is framed as “war,” it is back to normal. It’s the American way. I am thinking of the endless wars, the grotesque amount of resources consumed by the insatiable war machine, the ultimate excuse to tighten the reins of control and evade culpability. Except this time we are fighting the “invisible enemy.”
April 5, 2020: LOCKDOWN
Thinking about different ways of expanding the lockdown. And this from the Boston Globe: “Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world’s richest country to a season of untold suffering. [...] The president has blood on his hands.”
April 6, 2020: INVISIBLE ENEMY
The $1,200 seems like a meaningless handout, the actual purpose of which is to hide who the real enemy is.
April 7, 2020: No! (Wisconsin Edition)
Holding elections at the peak of deadly pandemic is unethical, criminal, and unconscionable. The regime does not even attempt to hide its relentless efforts at voter suppression. Democracy’s dying breath is sounding out in Wisconsin today.
April 8, 2020: TASK FORCE
Presidential task force: daily dose of lies, deceit and snake oil.
April 9, 2020: Congratulations!
In this Report, we acknowledge our “leadership’s” desire for continuous congratulations. We see your “accomplishments,” and we will never forget what you have done.
April 10, 2020: WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
April 11, 2020: Yes!
Yes! Change is coming! From anguish comes hope. From devastation comes renewal. From death springs life. Contemplating ways to turn the tragedy into opportunity. Subvert its destructive energy, and allow it to propel us forward into a better future. A companion to the “No!” Report from April 7, reminding us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
April 12, 2020: BREATHTAKING.
Reflecting on the feelings of solitude and awe. On being engulfed by something magnificent yet deadly. Astonishing and suffocating.
April 13, 2020: THE CURE AND THE PROBLEM
I am pondering the grave implications of “restarting the economy.” I am thinking of the heartless calculations of the “leadership” regarding the price of the “cure” and the extent of the “problem.” The ruling class only cares about its wealth and power. They are the problem. We are the cure.
April 14, 2020: TOTAL AUTHORITY
Yesterday pronouncements of our “leader” about his total authority over our lives more openly than ever move us closer yet to an all out totalitarian regime. I report today with an image balancing three visual references: 1. the 1932 Hitler presidential election poster; 2. The 1939 “Keep Calm and Carry On” British war poster; 3. ... but with a Corona beer crown.
April 15, 2020: Welcome!
Hello World! Defunding the World Health Organization in the midst of the pandemic is a novel move in the grotesque dance of death, American style.
April 16, 2020: ALL UNDER CONTROL
We are all under ruthless control. When the United States Secretary of the Treasury says that $1,200 should be enough to live on for 10 weeks in this country, you realize the extent of brazen thievery that defines the current regime.
April 17, 2020: IT’S YOUR JOB TO DIE.
The regime is just one tiny rhetorical step away from telling us all: “Work will set you free.”
April 18, 2020: LIBERATE
The three numbers today represent current COVID-19 deaths in Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota: states the regime singled out for their “liberation.” I am thinking a lot about phones in all this. How much of the pandemic experience plays out through/with the phone. Of course in this case: a phone in the wrong hand. Now “liberated.”
April 19, 2020: DEATH = COMMUNISM!
Salut to the absurd brilliance of all the idiots protesting the measures put in place to protect their own lives. Also, my personal favorite, how anything they don’t like is “communism.” So, taking it to the only logical conclusion here.
April 20, 2020: EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME.
I can’t be the only one feeling temporally and physically disoriented by the experience of the last few weeks. I am in my head, in my home, but also outside, and everywhere in the world simultaneously. Nothing happens, panic holds for days, or explodes and disappears in an instant. Turmoil shifting places at will: it’s there, and suddenly here with me. In my hand. Monotonous intensity. Silence and catastrophe. Do you feel it too?
April 21, 2020: GREAT.
In many ways the word “great” had been stolen from us. We, and our “greatness,” are being held hostage. I think of it just as the “leadership” decided to suspend immigration to the US. Our house had been plundered and, step by step, turned into a prison. We are living in a failed state.
April 22, 2020: $0 NON-ESSENTIAL. (Honor the Earth)
I am not ashamed to admit that I see the crash of the oil market as hopeful news. I believe this is one of the harbingers of the better world ahead. Let’s keep it in the ground.
April 23, 2020: WHAT DID I DO TODAY?
It feels like we can’t do anything about it. But there are also things we are supposed to do. What is “it”? And what did I do about “it”? I am asking this question of myself, and fully acknowledge the fact that doing nothing may very well be doing something. What is our agency today, in this different world? And with that, what is our responsibility, and accountability?
April 24, 2020: DISINFECTANT INJECTION MANUAL
Half snake oil sales pitch, half Chairman Mao. Who can doubt the healing force of Powerful Light?
April 25, 2020: LIES! LIES. LIES...
There is not much to say about this. Just that it needs to be said.
April 26, 2020: THERE IS NO IMMUNITY.
Protect yourself and those around you. The disconnect between the spring awakening and the grief for the world in turmoil is palpable. Do you feel it too?
April 27, 2020: WE DELIVER!
We have always known that we deliver death through pollution. But early research, coming out of Italy, indicates that pollution and COVID may work in tandem increasing our deadly efficiency. So many lessons for the world emerging from this disaster.
April 28, 2020: IT’S TRUE! (OR NOT.) Believe It! (OR NOT.)
The truth is dead. Or not. And if it isn’t, it might be dying in the hallways of crowded hospitals, in nursing homes, or it fades away in the solitude of quarantined homes. Truth has been systematically dismantled for years, but the plague brought it to its knees in new disastrous ways. Will we ever trust again?
April 29, 2020: Here. Now.
The official death toll in the US is nearly 60,000 and there are now over 1,000,000 cases of people diagnosed with the disease here. I read stories about the hospital workers holding up cellphones so their patients can say goodbye to loved ones. So much of the death is experienced through our phones. The ultimate corporeal experience of the human condition, reduced to a touch of a perfectly machined, glass surface.
April 30, 2020: Good Luck!
Many things converge, for me, in this meat still life: 1. I began with the reports of the regime ordering the meat plants to continue their operation, despite thousands of cases of employees and meat inspectors being diagnosed with the deadly disease. 2. Further, in general, acknowledging the gross mismanagement of food resources leading to tons of vegetables being buried, thousands of gallons of milk being wasted, while millions of people line up in food lines because they can’t afford the next meal. 3. Realizing yet another opportunity brought to us by the pandemic: to re-evaluate our cruelty laden addiction to meat, which coincidentally, significantly contributes to the ongoing environmental disaster. 4. Remembering, that in Polish “still life” [martwa natura] literally means “dead nature.” 5. Wishing good luck to us all [see above].
May 1, 2020: 1 MAY
Growing up in Poland decades ago, I recall us being forced to march in May 1st parades staged as a performance of support for the oppressive regime. Today, in America, people are being forced to work in conditions threatening their lives. Capitalism or communism: oppression does not have a systemic designation. Police beat insubordinates everywhere with the same brutality.
May 2, 2020: THE GREAT Success STORY
Of course they think it’s a success. In one month, as the deadly pandemic rages, America’s billionaires increased their wealth by $282,000,000,000. Their money bags are our body bags.
May 3, 2020: At the Edge of Time.
Nearly 3,000 people died of COVID-19 on Friday. We often use 9/11 as a sort of national grief reference point. So the realization that we now have entered a stage, at which we relive the tragedy of this magnitude daily, helps to put things in context. The heavy silence present in images from that day was resonating in my mind as I drew these figures. One by one.
May 4, 2020: Inside Out, Upside Down,
It’s amazing: a few weeks ago, I felt my home would protect me and my loved ones from the raging disease. Today, I feel that I need to protect my home from the deadly arrogance and ignorance proliferating around.
May 5, 2020: DOUBLE DEATH (BY JUNE)
Multiples, sickening mathematics of death.
May 6, 2020: Until Hugs.
My friend Sam wrote these words two days ago. I saw them online, surrounded by reports of grief and pain. By anger and hatred. And they reminded me, that in the midst of it all, we still, and always, long for tenderness and love. I am thinking of all those who brave it alone. Expectant and defiant. The hugs will come. Though not yet. We need to hold on a little longer. Maybe much longer. But the day will come.
May 7, 2020: PRO TESTING! ANTI IGNORANCE.
I am pro testing: we need more testing widely available. Instead of factual information, we are receiving lies, and staged “protests” rooted in ignorance. Both of these issues remain trapped in the space framed on one hand by science and transparency, and on the other, by political manipulation.
May 8, 2020: Victory!
About the endless, nauseating, self-congratulatory proclamations of victory and success. About the lie we live within, where words no longer mean what they used to.
May 9, 2020: The GREATEST MOTHER in the WORLD.
For all the nurses. A century later, I reprise this iconic poster from 1917, which has always been one of my inspirational favorites. My mother is a nurse, I myself had earned a Red Cross Nurse certificate in my youth. To this day I aspire to work in the spirit of helpful service.
May 10, 2020: MOTHER NATURE
As we are taught lessons of empathy and strength by Nurses, and acknowledge the selfless, limitless care at the center of Motherhood. As nature begins to reclaim spaces we have taken from Her, I am asking: how do we move forward and care for our Mother Earth?
May 11, 2020: Three-Phased Approach.
Our “leadership” devised an efficient, three-phased approach to re-opening America. I noticed that the official document was missing diagrams visualizing the essence of the process. It’s very simple.
May 12, 2020: THEY LIE, WE DIE.
Language is a virus.
May 13, 2020: Trillions Billions Millions Thousands
There is an incomprehensible quality about the numbers I hear or read about, no matter the context. Whether it’s wealth or misery, the abstraction engulfs the reality. Except perhaps for the faint realization, that some of them belong in one world, and others in a completely different one.
May 14, 2020: DE-QUARANTINED.
As governments everywhere lift the “shelter-in-place” measures, I am experiencing a deepened sense of insecurity. My home at first seemed to be a safe space, then it felt vulnerable to encroaching ignorance, and now I feel even less protected than when the quarantine was put in place weeks ago. It’s so disappointing to see the positive impact of physical distancing be squandered for the benefit of “economy,” which simply means: profit for the ruling class.
May 15, 2020: A: OPEN CARRY. B: CONCEAL CARRY.
America’s obsession with guns has always been about killing. So it’s not surprising that it managed to corrupt the implementation of shelter-in-place safety measures. Here are additional illustrations from the official “Re-open America” guidelines document. For additional information, see the May 11 Report.
May 16, 2020: YES! WE ARE OPEN!
Despite the clear and deadly implications, the regime is pushing the “re-opening” onto us. When the pandemic arrived in the US, it was not a surprise: we could see it coming from Europe. We could see its devastation in plain sight. Yet we let it sweep over the country, and claim its deadly toll. We know the second wave is coming, and we are letting it swallow us again.
May 17, 2020: Normal.
I am tired. I wonder how many of you feel the same way: battered by the onslaught of uncertainty, pain, doubt. Unable to consider anything in the future with even a modicum of confidence. The sustained beating of news shrapnel. The inner struggle between the need for all this to be over, and the desire to survive, to sleep it all away. And the nagging realization that none of it is normal.
May 18, 2020: IT WILL GO AWAY!
Back at it: our “leadership” peddling snake oil for their own benefit. Pretend the problem is solved, force people back to work, profit. Meanwhile US Coronavirus deaths have surpassed the combat deaths of US servicemen in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
May 19, 2020: Ventilator
The blooming crabapple tree in front of our house, and mechanical ventilator diagram. The two worlds, the same world. Same time.
May 20, 2020: BEFORE AFTER
What will happen? How will the world be different after COVID-19? Will we go back to the way things were before? We are all asking these questions. I think about them too. And while the pandemic revealed just how profoundly broken our world is, some things are worth protecting. Some things should stay exactly the way they always were. For that to happen, we will have to commit to working towards a greener future. Closer to each other. Closer to earth.
May 21, 2020: HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE
It’s as if the con artist regime is going out of its way to invent new ways of killing us for a quick buck.
May 22, 2020: MALICE, of COURSE. (AGAIN & AGAIN)
How else do you explain the relentless mocking and sowing confusion about the role of the face mask. The fact that people somehow rebel against wearing protective masks is a testimony to the effectiveness of the malicious manipulations by the con artist regime.
May 23, 2020: STOCKPILE
There are some words which are lingering in my head, that will forever be connected to this moment in time. They form a kind of internal COVID Lexicon. Stockpile is one of them. Human resources. Work force. Cargo. Commodity.
May 24, 2020: Remember.
What gets memorialized, and what must be remembered. What is remembered, and what is forgotten, and how rarely do we have agency over which is which. All this after I saw a woodpecker on the side of my house, and it instantly made me think of the COVID-19 test procedure. I know: It doesn’t make sense. None of it does.
May 25, 2020: Fig. 63 A Failed State.
If I were a landscape painter, this is the scene I would paint to capture the essence of our failed state.
May 26, 2020: REWRITING OF HISTORY
They are lying about everything. What happened, didn’t happen; what is happening is not really happening; what will happen, will not. But we are watching. We know. We will remember.
May 27, 2020: I CAN’T BREATHE! IF IT’S NOT COVID, IT’S THE POLICE. (Black Lives Matter)
George Floyd was killed by the police on Monday. He was strangled in broad daylight, on camera, at this corner, while multiple people pleaded with the police to take their knee off his neck. It is important to acknowledge the fact that the same, inherently racist, systemic dynamic which facilitated the murder of George Floyd, is also the reason why twice as many Black Americans die of COVID-19 as whites. Tragedy within tragedy. Black Lives Matter, and we can not let this go on.
May 28, 2020: 100,426 GONE.
As my city burned, we have crossed the threshold of 100,000 fallen to the plague. The loss of every single life is a catastrophe. Yet today I am again thinking of tragedies nested within each other, interconnected. The line connecting each individual death to the epic scale of the world grief is only one breath long.
May 29, 2020: THEY WILL BEAT YOU IF YOU SPEAK AGAINST THEM. (BLM)
The fact that even during the pandemic, as a People, we need to fight against the deadly grip of racist, systemic injustice is a testimony to our social failure. There is a rotten, morally debased culture that is eating away at whatever is left of our collective identity. I believe though, that the plague does bring an opportunity to renew our commitment to empathy. And that if we work hard together, we can lay foundation for a healthier, more equitable, and just future. Black Lives Matter. Enough is enough.
May 30, 2020: CHAOS
Our city is disappearing.
May 31, 2020: ESSENTIAL WORK (BLM)
We have heard a lot about essential work in recent months. But the events of the last few days brought into focus the true meaning of these words. The time for essential work of eradicating racism is now. Black Lives Matter.
June 1, 2020: PROTECT EACH OTHER. (G.F.)
I saw this hawk flying over our heads yesterday, when we delivered food to a donation site. So much care, selflessness and love. Staggering amounts of food shared. And expressions of care and empathy filled the air. We know how to protect each other. The community is strong.
June 2, 2020: Blackout (Blackout Tuesday)
A message from my dear friend Colette Gaiter: “Understanding that black lives matter should be as natural as breathing—as natural as it is to us. To completely act on that you must first find your own humanity. As Toni Morrison said, ‘the function of freedom is to free someone else.’ Free yourself first.” Thank you for these beautiful words!
June 3, 2020: Peonies and Fire
Reflecting on worlds inextricably connected, parallel, yet unequal. Experiences real and unreal. Shared and suppressed. Privilege of beauty and burden of fear. Tumult of togetherness.
June 4, 2020: REST IN POWER! (George Floyd)
Yesterday’s report acknowledged the parallel realities of fire and peonies. Today, on the day of His Memorial, I want both worlds to come together, and embrace George Floyd on His final journey.
June 5, 2020: TODAY
Somehow, a space for meaningful dialogue got poisoned by capital and politics. And here we are now, in a moment of precarious balance. Reality designed to collapse at any time. Domestic barricades.
June 6, 2020: THE SHAME.
The two viruses. Thinking about empathy, the spaces between our bodies, the impact and the consequences. Social and ethical convulsions.
June 7, 2020: DEFUND VICIOUS DOGS AND OMINOUS WEAPONS
Racism and the pandemic are intertwined along the systemic lines of inequity, oppression, and exploitation. Both are deadly, infectious, and the regime would have us believe that neither is really a problem.
June 8, 2020: ONE LAW
The Regime Bible.
June 9, 2020: Poison.
So many poisons in this image... Eternally corrupting evil of money, violence and power. The amount of money spent on police is obscene. It’s time to defund.
June 10, 2020: MASS SUFFERING
The COVID pandemic has reawakened our visceral understanding of mass suffering. This country was built on stolen land, by forced, stolen labor, and our history is swollen with a cornucopia of cruelty.
June 11, 2020: THE END.
There is an element of poetic justice in how COVID arrived in America as a sort of reenactment of the disease brought here by the Old World centuries ago. Now that statues of Columbus are being toppled, we recognize that this is the end. The genocidal luxury cruise is over. Time to wake up from the colonial wet dream: The false empire is crumbling.
June 12, 2020: JUSTICE IS PEACE
We understand fairness and justice instinctively. Its denial is unnatural. It thrives in our interconnectedness, love, empathy and community. It is a foundation of our humanity, and, of course, with no justice, there is no peace.
June 13, 2020: Psst!
There is more than $500,000,000,000 that the Regime took from the taxpayers. They will not tell us where our money went. The rich are multiplying their wealth on the backs of the sick and dying. They are looting our country. What are we going to do about it?
June 14, 2020: BE MY REFUGE. [double-sided drawing]
As the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone thrives in Seattle, and communities all around the US are constructing frameworks for mutual care, and without police. I am thinking of inward and outward protective spaces we hold within and for each other.
June 15, 2020: Luxury & BRUTALITY
The corrupt machines of capitalist domain. Seemingly imperceptible, because absent from history books, systematic transition from slavery to prison-industrial complex. The ultimate hostage workforce. And the perverted need for brutality as a means of disciplining the working class.
June 16, 2020: LONG LIVE DEATH!
I read today Chomsky saying that the Regime “has adopted the ‘Viva Death!’ approach.” While I can see that the Regime will choose death for profit any time, I do not understand why people decided that the disease no longer concerns them. Wear your mask! If you don’t want to do it for yourself or for those around you, do it against the Regime.
June 17, 2020: HIC SVNT DRACONES
This Latin phrase would mark the unexplored areas on the early maps. “There were dragons there,” because we often fear the unknown. The amazing thing about today is that the scariest things are precisely the things we know everything about. And there are so many dragons here.
June 18, 2020: Your Breath is a WEAPON.
I wonder how many of us really think about that. It’s clear that the Regime does not care about you or me. So we need to protect each other, save our lives. Please, wear your mask.
June 19, 2020: Thresholds. (Juneteenth)
The point at which something begins is also a point at which something ends. Locating those points is never easy, and often only truly possible in retrospect.
June 20, 2020: BORN ANTIFA
Hatred is taught.
June 21, 2020: NO TESTING = NO DISEASE
The Regime’s approach to eradicating a deadly disease: 1. Announce victory; 2. Eliminate testing; 3. Observe fading numbers of disease cases; 4. Point out how lucky we all are for having the Regime’s “leadership.”
June 22, 2020: THE PLAGUE IS HISTORY.
There is of course the childish notion, that if you just close your eyes, it all goes away, which our Regime embraces. Then there is the idea of history that is constantly manipulated, and because of that, in truth, entirely inaccessible. But there is also the fact that we are witnessing this historic moment, and that we must not let our experiences slip into the oblivion of time. And more.
June 23, 2020: A PIVOTAL MOMENT
This point in time. This time. No time. All the time. Any time. Out of time. In The Current Moment. The Defining Moment. Any moment now. Now or never. This moment. A Pivotal moment.
June 24, 2020: FROM THE WOMB TO THE TOMB
The Plague further erased the distinction between living space and work space. Between work time and leisure time. Not only because so many began to routinely work from home, but also because we have developed a better understanding that there are so many different labors.
June 25, 2020: TWO-FACED TYRANTS FALL ON THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.
The Regime keeps telling us that “testing is a double-edged sword.” Here is the other edge.
June 26, 2020: You! (DO SOMETHING)
Do you feel the constant sense of urgency, combined with a diffused, fractured and undirected purpose? Either not knowing what to do or being unable to prioritize among the litany of issues that demand instant attention? A stunted emergency that requires immediate action, or no action at all, where even doing nothing feels like an act of vigilant awareness? I give you FONDE: Fear Of Not Doing Enough. (This classic finger pointing theme in propaganda designs typically gives you a concrete actionable directive. I emptied it of specific purpose, leaving only the ambiguous, anxiety laden tension. I feel it all the time.)
June 27, 2020: Fig. 96: Hot Spots.
In the early reports, I used fire as a way of representing the spread of the disease. Later, as my city burned, the fire became a very real presence in the landscape of the uprising. Today, I am thinking of the flames of distrust and hatred stoked by the Regime. The lines of division. They are describing massive infection outbreaks as “hot spots,” but fires burn bright between each and every one of us.
June 28, 2020: UNMASKED
Masks and violent histories go hand in hand. The masks worn in the past to hide the racist identities, and the refusal to wear the protective masks today. Hatred, obfuscation, arrogance, ignorance and inconsideration, all seem to resonate whenever questions of our collective identity emerge. Who are we? And who do we aspire to be?
June 29, 2020: THE FEED
So much of the pandemic experience unfolds through the constant stream of social media feeds. Not just the plague, but the rest of the political and cultural landscape becomes contorted in the collective, cyclic regurgitation. The viral nature of the feed has been with us for a while, but new strands of deviant infections seem to propagate now even more feverishly than ever before.
June 30, 2020: We Saved Lives!
More absurd salesmanship from the con artist Regime. Relentless beating of the self-congratulatory, toxic lies. Winning it again!
July 1, 2020: UNWELCOME AIR
100 days since I started this project! It began when we needed to stay at home for our safety. Today, as a nation, we are so sick that Europe will not accept us for their own safety. The Regime, which so desperately wanted to build walls, in the end, gets walled in by the outside world.
July 2, 2020: KEEP ’EM DYING!
The constant denials and lies have created an atmosphere in which it is so easy to forget, that people continue to die from this disease. There are potentially fatal implications for each one of the tens of thousands of new cases every day. Somewhere, in the calculated callousness of it all, America, in which we care for fairness, human dignity and life, is letting out its final breath.
July 3, 2020: Heritage.
It’s no wonder that the Regime luxuriates in genocidal catastrophe. Its totalitarian language and behavior betrays the true agenda with renewed clarity. From dog whistles to overt fascist signaling. From racist heritage to heartless policy. No amount of flowery decorum can cover the stench of hate and violence fomented by the Regime in the name of Freedom and Liberty. And how pathetic, that when called out, they hide behind a childish excuse: it was just a joke.
July 4, 2020: LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT
I can’t think of much to celebrate today. The country has been plundered, and devastated by the criminal Regime. Which in the ongoing effort to normalize the catastrophe, tells us now to “learn to live with it.”
July 5, 2020: On STOLEN LAND.
Bringing the virus superspreader charade rally to the stolen Lakota land truly is a celebration of our history. Just not the history the Regime would like us to learn: an actual reenactment of the centuries-old violence perpetrated on Indigenous People.
July 6, 2020: Impulse Buy
The revolution will not be televised. But it may be available on Amazon Prime.
July 7, 2020: BLACK SNAKE RUNS DRY.
There are not many days when we can truly celebrate something. But today is different: we celebrate and Honor The Earth, as the black snake of DAPL gets to be emptied of its poisonous cargo.
July 8, 2020: BACK to SCHOOL!
The Regime announced that they will be forcing full reopening of schools, and blackmailing Universities into in-person instruction in the Fall. It’s almost as if they were determined to use every conceivable strategy to make as many people sick as possible.
July 9, 2020: REVERSE REOPENING.
No matter if you live in a state that is currently experiencing a massive surge of COVID-19 infections or in one that appears to have it under control, it seems that we are all trapped in ultra-polarized spaces. Spaces defined by the profound inability to ascertain with any degree of confidence, what is actually happening. I feel these divisions eating away at my discombobulated brain. Who/what can I trust? What does it all mean? Where are we going?
July 10, 2020: THE VIRUS Thrives IN PRISONS.
We knew that jails, nursing homes and meat plants have been consistent breeding grounds for COVID-19. Come Fall we will be looking at schools the same way. This drawing is about the various scenarios of confinement and vulnerability. Different scales of prisons. And the fact that since the travel ban, our country became a kind of prison itself.
July 11, 2020: My First Plague
I read somewhere that there might never be an end to this pandemic. That the antibodies don’t last, that the virus mutates, that people will not take the vaccine. As a father, and a teacher, I am also wondering how are folks preparing their kids to enter the virus laden schools?
July 12, 2020: Don’t Go!
Thinking about the inside and outside of the skin. About our bodies holding life and death in balance. About going and staying. The impossible choices we face.
July 13, 2020: No. 112
Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; or participates in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences psychological stress because of that. When two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person’s belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein they try to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.
July 14, 2020: All GO OUT!
60,000 more people getting sick every day? Let’s all go out and celebrate! Let’s go all out!
July 15, 2020: Who will it be?
I hear that ONLY .02% of children will die of COVID-19 after the reopening of schools. The callousness of this casual assessment rattles in my head with the relentless question: Who will it be? And more importantly: Why?
July 16, 2020: FIND SOMETHING NEW!
I am not sure how much more insulting and tone-deaf the Regime can be. Their solution to the massive unemployment: Find something new! So, I say: pitchforks, axes and knives don’t cut it anymore? Find something new!
July 17, 2020: IT’S IN THE AIR!
Whether it’s the virus, disease of racism, toxic lies, or criminal scheming: the Regime is, and always will be, surrounded by the stench of death.
July 18, 2020: THE FOG OF NOW.
The militarized secret police black ops in Portland bring about violence and sinister confusion. The Regime hides pandemic data from the public, in order to sow further disinformation. Distrust of science is fomented, while magical thinking proliferates. People furiously argue about the validity of basic protections afforded by wearing a mask... It’s hard not to think that the fog of war had descended upon us. The fog of pandemic. The fog of now.
July 19, 2020: DEMOCRACY! $ € £
This is a hard one. It’s not too late, but it sure feels that what we have at the moment is merely an illusion of democracy. Pandemic revealed the severity of the systematic dismantling and ruination of our democratic institutions. Racism, hatred, nationalism, and lies are merely financial instruments in the hands of the ruling class. When they are done with us, we will be either literally or morally bankrupt. Or both.
July 20, 2020: PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT
We are free, live in the land of plenty, and everything is fine. OR The disaster is here, cornucopia is empty, and we are fed lies nonstop. A study on cones, funnels, and the art of making disaster look like success. America doesn’t do propaganda. America does “perception management.”
July 21, 2020: FULLY UNRESTED
I heard mothers singing lullabies on the street in Portland. They were there to protect our restless bodies and souls from the violence perpetrated by the criminal Regime. It seems as though even the most silent of moments now are filled with a deep, ongoing state of unrest. How are you sleeping?
July 22, 2020: THE SECOND COMING OF The King of Ventilators
Marking the return of the greed messiah to the plague briefing pulpit. Now with renewed evil energy, attempting to hypnotize the battered nation into submission. I was also pondering how our country had become a kind of Russian prison. So, I am hoping you can imagine this drawing as a massive prison tattoo…
July 23, 2020: PERSON, WOMAN, MAN, CAMERA, TV
The leadership is flaunting its superb cognitive abilities. But we know that for them, the answer to any question is always the same. And it most likely involves secret police troops terrorizing the people.
July 24, 2020: Radical LEFT MOB
This is my love note to all who are being vilified by the Regime, for exercising their right to free speech and peaceful protest. “Radical Left Mob” is for lovers, not haters. For healers, not killers.
July 25, 2020: OUT OF CONTROL.
Do you ever get the feeling that reality has spun out of control to the point where seemingly immutable, fundamental concepts become unstable, even questionable? For example: what if freedom doesn’t really exist, and the idea of it was only invented to justify oppression? I was thinking today about the overwhelming noise of the world. And the yearning for silence. Silence is complicated. Silence is death. But silence also helps us turn inward, to dig deeper, to find empathy. Is there a loud silence...?
July 26, 2020: TOGETHER!
A lineup of profile faces is a classic totalitarian propaganda trope, often reserved for the portrayal of “leadership,” and capturing the collective zeal for the cause. In today’s drawing, I am repurposing this theme, to depict those who hide their faces in order to violate the people with impunity. What is happening to our country? While the virus devastates our bodies, the Regime demolishes everything else, with equal lethality.
July 27, 2020: WE WILL (NEVER) BE HONEST WITH YOU!
Today I saw a chart showing the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the US. Unsurprisingly, the steady increase of cases suddenly stops, right after the Regime prohibited CDC from collecting the data from hospitals. When the Regime says they want to protect history, what they are saying is that they are already rewriting it. There is no end to the lies and manipulation. But the truth is always right in front of us. Never take anything at face value. Pay attention. Dig deeper. You have agency over the space between what is said and what is heard.
July 28, 2020: INDIVISIBLE
It doesn’t matter whether the border wall was demolished by wind yesterday or a few weeks ago, in New Mexico or in Texas. The lesson remains the same: in the eyes of nature, we are all indivisible. She will always show us the way.
July 29, 2020: Hoax
The Regime’s favorite word. Ultimate excuse for inconvenient truth. I watched the Attorney General hearings yesterday, and was struck how often those exercising their right to protest are labeled terrorists, while the criminal Regime hides behind the pretense of patriotism. What if patriotism is just nationalism “lite”? And nationalism, just a more palatable version of fascism?
July 30, 2020: VOTE
The Regime proposes postponement of the election, as the news of catastrophic collapse of the US economy is reported. There is a sense of pivot in this moment I can’t shake off. All of it, while the pandemic continues to affect hundreds of thousands of lives.
July 31, 2020: WALK WITH THE WIND (John Lewis Edition)
If yesterday’s Report was about the Regime’s attempt to undermine our right to vote, today’s Report says: we will not let them! It is also a nod to the May 31 “Essential Work” report, acknowledging the need for continuing the work for justice and equity. Only 94 days to the election! Rest In Power John Lewis. We are grateful for your light.
August 1, 2020: TO PROTECT AND SERVE
Stories, events, ideas run into each other, overlap and blend. We need to stay safe from COVID, and be able to vote by mail. So we must protect the Postal Service, which is under direct attack from the Regime. Just like the protesters in Portland, brutalized by police, using umbrellas to shield themselves from bullets. It’s all in this report.
August 2, 2020: EVERY MINUTE
There are so many forces, external and internal, that do not want us to think about this. But a deep contemplation of this fact is necessary for us, to be able to imagine a meaningful change ahead. Not “back” to normal, but forward, towards a better future built in empathy.
August 3, 2020: DEMON SEMEN
“Dr.” Stella Immanuel refers to herself as “God’s Battle Axe And Weapon Of War.” No wonder the “leadership” finds her impressive. I am here just for the sheer insanity of the whole thing. And to say: science.
August 4, 2020: THINK!
Of course not everything is a matter of life and death. But what we need today is a mindset, an attitude of thoughtful, caring consideration, that assumes close proximity of grave implications. A way to be more humbled and full of empathy for each other.
August 5, 2020: IT IS WHAT IT IS: BETRAYAL.
I do often refer to socially-centric artists’ work as “cultural Jiu-Jitsu” because one of the important skills seems to be the ability to use the energy of the opponent against them. My muscle memory took over today, as this drawing practically made itself.
August 6, 2020: The ECONOMY
The economy: probably one of the most perverted concepts used by the Regime to justify anything, and explain everything. It’s amazing how the news of the epic collapse of the US economy just a few days ago, got drowned by the noise of everything else. It looks like we are heading for the Great Depression era scale hardships, yet all we hear about is just how wonderful the reopening process is going.
August 7, 2020: COPAGANDA
The Regime’s favorite treat: Copagandas for all! We are going to be seeing a lot of posturing about supporting the police. We are going to be hearing a lot about good cops and bad apples. Everything, except real change. Just know that whatever they serve is always laced with something.
August 8, 2020: This Will End. This Must End! This Will Never End.
I read an article today, with the phrase “permanent pandemic” in it, and my mind went into a momentary spasm. Within a split second I shifted from resilient hopefulness, to urgent determination, and to defeated despair. Then I regained composure, and started again... and then I realized how much this one second spasm reflected the entire duration of pandemic to date.
August 9, 2020: YEARBOOK OBITUARIES
Template letters announcing death of a student or teacher? Faculty encouraged to write their wills ahead of school reopening? Outrageous? Yes it is! For me, as a parent, and as a teacher, the whole thing is just sickening.
August 10, 2020: RESIST.
I saw this stump growing a new limb on a walk in my neighborhood during the first or second week of lockdowns. It stayed with me, and re-surfaced today, as I was digging deep within myself for a tone of hopefulness. A reminder to carry the spirits of resistance in tomorrow’s primaries in Minnesota, and on, to November!
August 11, 2020: NEW EXECUTIVE ORDERS
There is always a new “executive order” around the corner. Another theft. Another self-serving scheme. Ulterior motives, half-truths, manipulative justifications. A trap.
August 12, 2020: OUR CANDIDATE!
The election season is here, and the Regime is putting its best candidate forward! Running on the record of America’s leadership in the world, and amazing performance in 2020. Unsurpassed numbers, record profits, and the solid platform of devastation.
August 13, 2020: Autonomous Zone
Months ago, when all this started, I would have thought that by the end of summer things would be under control, that we would genuinely be looking at some form of stability. Instead, today more than at the beginning, I am filled with dread, and look to home as the last refuge.
August 14, 2020: PUT IT ON! (USPS Edition)
I saw pictures of trucks taking down mailboxes in Portland today. The same is happening in other cities. The Regime overtly destroys the USPS as a means of denying the People their right to vote by mail during a pandemic. It’s criminal. And truly unbelievable that we need to protect ourselves, and the country, from our own government.
August 15, 2020: DEATH OF DEMOCRACY CELEBRATION PICNIC! (Save USPS!)
I don’t think democracy is dead yet. But they sure do! That’s how they do it: slowly, methodically, with a smile on their faces. The Regime is suffocating it a little bit more each day. I simply can not think of any other justification for the multiple ways in which the operation of USPS is being destroyed. It is being done solely to further corrupt the election process.
August 16, 2020: LOOKING AND SEEING
3 things intersect here for me: 1. Decline in testing in the US means we will simply “see” less, and certainly understand less the extent of the problem. 2. Months into the plague we seem to notice it less, act like it’s not really happening. 3. The creeping in of the fascist, dictatorial dynamic in our country is evident, yet there does not appear to be a way to stop it. Things happen right in front of us, but a sense of our collective inability to see them is overwhelming.
August 17, 2020: Altered by Plague
I am reading more about the long-term impacts of COVID-19, and physiological changes of bodies resulting from the disease. I am imagining more metaphysical alterations reflecting a complicated internal space where empathy and doubt, compassion and distrust, hope and fear compete for space.
August 18, 2020: Q & A
Ours is a time full of dark questions. And it is also a time for answers full of light.
August 19, 2020: DO WHAT [YOU THINK] IS RIGHT.
Are you opening or closing that door? This is a quiet follow up to yesterday’s Report. Materializing the turning point, a choice, decision. How do you know what is right? So many aspects of our lives had been turned upside down, perverted or completely demolished in recent years. It’s hard to find a solid footing anywhere. And yet, so much depends on our ability to, indeed, do the right thing.
August 20, 2020: Morality Demystified.
I can’t say I am surprised that our Great Leader is having a hard time distinguishing between the concepts of good and bad. Here is a quick reference chart covering some basics. I am sure the pursuit of ethics will always be a mystery to the Regime, so, hoping the language is not too complicated.
August 21, 2020: TWENTY DIFFERENT NAMES FOR CORONAVIRUS
So many ideas cross over every time our “fearless leader” uses the childish excuse of “there are 19 or 20 names for the virus” to then call it in his racist way. His endless lying, the need to always blame somebody else, the condescension. I always think of the fact that COVID was named after the shape of a crown, and find it poetically reflecting on the Regime’s toxic tyrannical ambitions.
August 22, 2020: AMERICAN CORONATION
While drawing yesterday’s Report, I asked myself “what would our Great Leader’s crown look like?” Now that we are just a couple of days away from the official RNC nomination, I thought we should take a look at the official regalia.
August 23, 2020: Big lie.
The concept of “Big Lie” was laid out in “Mein Kampf” nearly a century ago, but our current Regime practices it daily. Today’s reality is framed by a relentless and omnipresent deluge of lies. Whether we descend deeper into it, or escape from its darkness is up to us.
August 24, 2020: POOR, LOYAL, SICK FOR AMERICA!
Excerpts from an early draft of the RNC platform document. I think this might have gotten edited out, because the language didn’t convey the idea of mass suffering and death strongly enough.
August 25, 2020: PROMISES
RNC day one over. Three more to go! The official dance party on the corpse of truth and democracy unfolding in full swing!
August 26, 2020: Superspreader (Kenosha + RNC)
Spreading of toxic rhetoric at the RNC and the bullets in Kenosha are expressions of the same hateful ideology promoted and cultivated by the Regime. Even though the killings and lies had been sustained for a long time, the renewed fervor and intensity makes today a superspreader.
August 27, 2020: INJUSTICE. IN JUSTICE.
This drawing is about empathy. Whether you see the drops surrounding the eye as rain, or as grief shared by others: Justice and healing flows from the community, and Justice is the rain that cleanses and nurtures.
August 28, 2020: THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
Three things converged today to become this drawing: 1: A conversation with a colleague about a jailer trying to convince the inmates that his goal is to free them; 2: Watching the RNC nomination speech = a vomit of lies and empty promises; 3: Seeing a picture of our Great Leader with a glow of presidential seal around his head depicting him as our holy savior.
August 29, 2020: BREAKING NEWS
Perhaps it was the fact that hurricane Laura was reported as “catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” that made me think about the broader disaster context for COVID-19. What constitutes “breaking news” anyway? Shouldn’t the climate disaster be breaking news every day?
August 30, 2020: HERD IMMUNITY SHEPHERD
There is talk about the possibility that the Regime is actively pursuing the herd immunity approach. Meaning: let the disease claim what it wants as we do nothing. All that got me thinking: if there is a herd, there is a shepherd. And the shepherd decides...
August 31, 2020: Their SURPLUS IS Your SCARCITY
Every time the Regime says that the “economy is doing great,” they mean it is great for them: the millionaires and billionaires. Their wealth multiplies, while life for us gets harder every day. They feast, we starve.
September 1, 2020: KILL/HEAL
Even though the Regime is relentless in its attempts to kill as many of us as possible, and divide the rest into two warring camps, I am reporting today, that there is always a choice. Less camo, more jingle dress!
September 2, 2020: TODAY is the FUTURE
The “leadership” wants us to believe that today’s nightmare reality is a vision of the future, should they be unseated from power. But we know that today is merely a cruel reenactment of the fascist past. The ruling class in the US metastasized over the governing body and mutated into an autocratic Regime. Complete with fanatical fervor, militaristic forces brutalizing the citizenry, demonization of free press, and thousands dying at the hands of a heartless tyrant. We are trapped in a cruel Gordian knot of time space continuum.
September 3, 2020: The RUSSIAN VACCINE!
Two stories merging in this report: 1: Russia announced that they have the COVID-19 vaccine, despite the fact that there was clearly not enough time to test it. 2: German authorities confirmed today that Alexey Navalny, an outspoken Putin critic, was poisoned with Novichok [Новичо́к]: a chemical nerve agent developed and used by the Russian state. Let’s all hope that our Regime does not get inspired by these Russian strategies that “make things go away.”
September 4, 2020: SOUP
The Regime is desperate to divert the attention away from their disastrous mishandling of the pandemic, which continues to kill thousands of Americans. The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, exporter of death, complains about the dangers posed by cans of soup. It would be just funny, if it were not yet another nudge pushing the country into free fall towards fascist dictatorship.
September 5, 2020: DEMERIT
It’s just like the original Purple Heart, except this one got hollowed. Like everything else the Regime touches. Just like that, our Great Leader manages to devalue thousands of lost lives. Again.
September 6, 2020: USS EQUALITY
Inspired by the news of boats sinking in the parade celebrating the Regime, and simultaneous declaration of anti-racist education as un-American. I report: There is no equality in this country. There never was. This ship is a coffin.
September 7, 2020: You Are Never Alone In The Labor Camp.
On this Labor Day, a special message straight from the Labor Camp. Acknowledging all different kinds of labor, and therefore, that, one way or another, we are all working all the time.
September 8, 2020: Limitless MELANCHOLY.
I saw a big flock of birds fly by as I sat on the steps of our house this morning. The air is cold, and the fall is here. This means that we have now experienced all four seasons with the pandemic. It was quiet at the daybreak, and I felt overwhelmed by the vague sadness of melancholy.
September 9, 2020: U of C
My classes started, and I consider myself extremely lucky that neither I, nor my students need to be on campus physically. If meat packing plants were the special virus spreading sites in the early days of pandemic, then schools are the superspreaders today. It didn’t need to be this way.
September 10, 2020: PANIC Reveal!
We know that the Regime lies all the time. So the big reveal of the recordings that confirm a willful deception that lead to thousands of deaths is not terribly explosive. The new lie is that we were deceived “to prevent panic.” Meanwhile the wildfires set off by a gender reveal party rage in California. Is it too late to really panic?
September 11, 2020: WE FORGET EVERYTHING.
Today, I could not help but think of the national disaster metric that is 9/11. When I started working on this report this morning, I checked the COVID death stats, which listed 196,345. I checked again when I was finishing the drawing: 469 more deaths had been reported while I worked on this piece.
September 12, 2020: still.
Still, as in motionless. Still, as in it keeps happening. Still, as in still life. Still, as in silent, nevertheless, serene, yet. Still in a weird dark funk, feeling the weight of things. Feeling the scale, magnitude, the presence of “larger than life.”
September 13, 2020: SCIENCE FICTION.
By the Regime’s own admission: the virus spreads through air, and is exponentially more deadly than even the worst flu. 198,452 people died from it in the USA alone. And yet, there are thousands, if not millions of folks here, who choose to live in a world of fiction, in which none of this is happening. Science fiction offered a vision of the world built on science, but we appear to be living in a world governed by fiction and denying science.
September 14, 2020: VIRUS /VOTE
This drawing is about my hope that, perhaps in a somewhat paradoxical way, the isolation of lockdowns will bring us together stronger, in solidarity, when the time comes to vote the criminal Regime out this November.
September 15, 2020: HORRIBLE/WONDERFUL
The sense of the world seems to have been reduced to feeling it as truly wonderful, or, two seconds later, understanding it as utterly horrible. How do we reclaim the gray spaces? How do we wade in the stream, washed over by peaceful bliss, not of ignorance, but of empathy and deep knowing?
September 16, 2020: LOL
Deadly plague, raging fires, hurricanes, fascist Regime, racist police murders, thieving billionaires, forced sterilizations, planet devastation... what am I forgetting? LOL
September 17, 2020: 100% Broken.
These particular numbers are based on the distribution of wealth in the US (with only 7% of wealth being held by 80% of the entire population), but it really could have been any numbers. The Report is about how much our understanding of the various deep predicaments is totally opaque to us. How the numbers continue to resemble less and less of the reality in our country, which, of course, is profoundly broken.
September 18, 2020: PATRIOTIC EDUCATION.
The Regime announced a new “Patriotic Education” program. We know what they mean.
September 19, 2020: RISE UP!
“The dissenter’s hope is that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” May you Rest In Power, Justice Ginsburg! Thank you for your service!
September 20, 2020: 200,000 GONE
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made it clear how the loss of just one life can affect millions. We have now lost more than 200,000 lives to the pandemic, and thousands continue to die each week. I have said it before, but it is important to remember: it didn’t have to be this way. Vote the criminal Regime out.
September 21, 2020: WALLS FALL.
On Friday our Great Leader proclaimed repeatedly that he was the wall. “The wall between the chaos and the American Dream,” he said. We know that the Regime is only interested in dividing us, so no surprise that he thinks he is a wall. But regardless, chaos or dream, sooner or later, the walls always tumble.
September 22, 2020: Greetings from ANARCHIST JURISDICTION!
The Justice Department declared Seattle, Portland and New York City “anarchist jurisdictions” as a basis for denying federal support to those cities. It’s unbelievable, AND decidedly pathetic for the government to assault major American cities, and its citizens, this way. It’s as if the Regime is at war with its own citizenry...
September 23, 2020: Pure™ FASCIST MAGIC GUARANTEED.
I find myself shaken by the casual fascism of the current Regime, but perhaps even more so, that it is becoming more and more evident each day, yet it goes unchallenged. The cooking up of the toxic brew of racist poison continues. It’s trademarked, because the Regime never misses an opportunity to make a quick buck.
September 24, 2020: NEW! ELECTORAL GUIDELINES
According to our Great Leader’s most recent instructions: the best election is one without ballots. To assure the continuation of the Regime, “get rid of the ballots.” Желаю удачи!
September 25, 2020: GRAND JURY, GRAND WIZARD (BLM)
Racist hatred and disregard for Black Lives manifests itself in many different ways, enabled and cultivated by mechanisms of oppression and discrimination. It has persisted throughout American history, and continues today, maintaining its hold on systemic structures. Those are the facts, and no amount of “patriotic education” can erase this ugly truth.
September 26, 2020: Uncontained
Taking a moment today to acknowledge the crazy amount of time that had passed since it all began. This week marked half a year since I started making these drawings every day. 6 months, and just about everything feels out of control. Uncontained. Maybe uncontainable. And also hair.
P.S.
I am not sure how this came about, but when thinking about the lockdown duration, I got this image in my head: a figure lost in, or swallowed by the wild, swirling hair that becomes this dark torrent. I guess for many of us, the uncut hair became a tangible measure of the flow of time. For me, all days became somewhat similar. I certainly lost the sense of weekdays or weekends. Perhaps time did become the tangle of a thousand strands? An all-enveloping braid. When I started on this series, I cracked open a fresh packet of coffee filters. Watching the pack of 100 disappear, and then another, became another metric for me. This Thursday, I opened the fifth pack... I drank more than 400 cups of coffee while drawing. Maybe it’s not hair? Maybe the figure is just drowning in coffee?
September 27, 2020: NO JUSTICE, JUST LABOR.
The push to install yet another Regime enabler at the Supreme Court. The Grand Jury decision in Breonna Taylor’s case. Decades of racist criminal justice abuses. The list goes on. One gets an impression that the ruling class makes laws that only benefit them, and we are here only to work and obey. The injustice system.
September 28, 2020: Fig: 189 Loopholes
The contempt our Great Leader must have for all of us. It’s clear that he thinks we are all idiots that simply can not see through his con job. Well, we have a couple of new tax loopholes for him to explore.
September 29, 2020: DEBATE/DEBASE
These two words: DEBATE/DEBASE perfectly describe the state of discourse in our society today. From the Regime hurling insults, to the desperate attempts at rational debate with irrational hatred. While the “leadership” keeps finding new, more brazen ways to debase our humanity, we appear to be hopelessly locked somewhere between reason and rage.
September 30, 2020: ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
As the world surpassed one million dead from COVID-19, I wanted to acknowledge the spectacular achievements of our Great Leader. No one in the world comes close to the beautiful numbers accomplished by the Regime. Not even close. Credit goes where credit is due, and we all want to make sure that we never forget that our Brilliant Helmsman is the one who commandeered this ship straight into the ocean of flames.
October 1, 2020: SEEK TRUTH FROM FACTS.
I believe that, in spite of unending lies, deceptions and obfuscations, in the wreckage of today’s reality, we can still find truth. We can also learn a thing or two from the crows: their families, intelligence, patience. But perhaps most importantly, their keen understanding, that there is indeed strength in numbers.
October 2, 2020: Stay POSITIVE!
I am sure our Dear Leader could use a little pickup today. So, I am extending the kind of “support” he bestows on millions of sick Americans, and hundreds of thousands who died from this disease. Remember: if you stay positive in a negative situation, you win!
October 3, 2020: A SMALL REVOLUTION!
Yesterday morning’s news was understandably crazy. But micro revolutions play out in my head every morning. One internal uprising erupts in the morning, and is taken over by another one at night. And again the next day. Do you experience this turbulence of the daily cycles too?
October 4, 2020: UNITE!
There is only one month until the election. My biggest fear is that the Russian meddling in 2016 was just a rehearsal for this year. And that this time our Regime works hand in hand with them to delegitimize the process, undermine the outcomes, and effectively destroy the right to vote: the foundation of our democracy.
October 5, 2020: Nobody. Nothing. Never.
Never. Nothing. Nobody. Feeling the void. And these empty words. Swelling. The demagoguery of today is rife with them. But each day, the time seems to gnaw at them a little, erasing the authority of absence, and reminding us that in fact, it’s Always Something for Somebody.
October 6, 2020: The RESURRECTION OF SAINT COVID
And on the third day, The COVID Messiah had risen! Back to spread the word and the disease. To once again mock the thousands of dead, and millions of sick. Hallelujah!
October 7, 2020: VOTE it’s VITAL.
27 days until the election. Vote early if you can. Let’s end this nightmare! It’s vital.
October 8, 2020: VACCINE/ANTIDOTE
Signs of rot setting in the White House are becoming more and more obvious. We can all smell the putrid flesh of the decaying Regime, and the disease eating away through the inner circles. We will need the vaccine to overcome COVID, but we will also need a powerful antidote for the years of exposure to poisonous lies.
October 9, 2020: Thank You!
Our Supreme Commander, the Great Protector of our Health and Prosperity, the Brilliant Helmsman and Liberator, the Fearless Keeper of Law and Order has defeated the Virus yet again! Thank you! Eternal gratitude and Loyalty forever.
October 10, 2020: COVID & KOOL-AID
COVID! Kool-Aid! Cocktails! What does an invitation to a deadly superspreader look like anyway? Our diseased Leader moves fast: spread it while you got it!
October 11, 2020: CIRCUS
Thinking about how our reality became a grotesque circus. And all the new skills we had to acquire to make it through the day. Every day. It’s Sunday: let the new cycle commence!
October 12, 2020: DIGNITY (Indigenous Peoples Day)
There is no doubt that the Regime uses history as a tool of manipulation and oppression. The truth has been systematically warped, erased, and/or falsified to suit the needs of the ruling class. This continues to this day: the efforts to enforce “patriotic education” standards, ban the education programs that deal with systemic racism, or the all-out attack on the 1619 curriculum, are just a few examples. But there is no greater historical lie, than the way systematic genocide of Native American populations has been portrayed. Today is Indigenous Peoples Day: a celebration of our true history, which replaces what used to be “Columbus Day.” I am proud to live in Minnesota, one of only 14 states that recognizes this day as the Indigenous Peoples Day.
October 13, 2020: UNTOLD GRIEF
As a country we have lost nearly a quarter million lives. Yet, because the Regime desperately tries to evade responsibility for this enormous loss, we are still denied the opportunity to collectively grieve. Even more disturbingly, the individual grief of families, friends and loved ones of those who perished to the pandemic, is systematically marginalized and insulted by the constant denials of the scale and pervasiveness of this catastrophe. The illusion of normalcy we are being fed is insulting, and only serves to multiply the pain.
October 14, 2020: IMMUNE MAYBE.
The Regime had given up on trying to contain the plague. We are in the midst of yet another surge, with new case counts going up in more than half the country. Our Great Leader proclaims that due to the “protective glow” he is now immune. Maybe. I wonder how many people feel that they are also “maybe immune,” and continue spreading the deadly disease?
October 15, 2020: Suppress ’n’ Spread
The Regime never put forward an actual political platform for this election cycle. But it appears clear that it’s Suppress ’n’ Spread. And that “democracy is not the objective.” These are their last days. They must be.
October 16, 2020: DEADLY.
In America, we are experiencing the pandemic as a phenomenon framed by the deadly “neighbors” of racism and greed. The Regime not only allows the disease to decimate the country, but it also strategically utilizes it to further disenfranchise the vulnerable, and profit from mass death and illness.
October 17, 2020: Third Peak
First we worked to flatten the curve. Then came the second wave. Now, we are entering the third peak stage in the continually expanding pandemic disaster. It is painfully clear that whatever it is we are doing, is not working. If we are going to save ourselves, we need a new direction, a new plan. The Regime doesn’t care about us. We need to vote them out.
October 18, 2020: THE FUTURE REMAINS UNWRITTEN (For A.)
To all those whose lives got put on hold. Who feel stuck, immobilized and rudderless. Whose plans were thwarted by travel bans, lockdowns or quarantines. This drawing is for you. Stay strong: the future will come!
October 19, 2020: DAILY DARVO
If it feels like we are all in an abusive relationship with the Great Leader, it’s because we really are! I only found out this morning that there is a name for what the Regime does constantly: DARVO! When a narcissist is accused of abuse, they Deny it, Attack, and Reverse the Victim and Offender. This is the exact dynamic we have been subjected to for the last 4 years. Daily.
October 20, 2020: THE DEAD Accuse…!
No matter how many distractions he invents, how many lies and excuses he offers, the Great Leader will never escape the guilt and personal responsibility for the nearly quarter million dead. They are all here, helping us cast the ballots to oust the criminal Regime once and for all.
October 21, 2020: PPE
The constant arguments about masks are absurd. They are there to protect us, and those around us. Every time I put mine on, I think of the bravery and selflessness of the thousands of doctors and nurses, who put their PPE on to care for us. Day in, day out. Wear it. Save a life.
October 22, 2020: MAKING MEMORIES
If yesterday’s Report focused on external protections, today I am diving deep inward. Conjuring up a metaphysical map of the internal feedback loop in which new memories are made up of old memories. A self-sustaining cycle, perhaps a quarantine self-defense mechanism, frantically attempting to make order on the inside out of chaos on the outside. Uroboros of the heart.
October 23, 2020: Fight! Fight! Fight!
While allowing the quarter million Americans to die, the Regime continued to brazenly enrich itself. Profiting from sickness and death of thousands, the ruling class amassed billions of dollars, multiplying its obscene wealth. We must fight to stamp out this plague.
October 24, 2020: HEADS UP!
I started this project on March 24 with a drawing of a severed head, with plants growing out of its eyes, set against a rising sun. Seven months later, in a way, I am revisiting that scene. There are more heads, the plants are gone, and the sun turned into a black void. And gravity disappeared too.
October 25, 2020: SELF-DEFENSE
Only 9 days until the election! The catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic makes it clear just how grave is the importance of your vote. The survival of democracy is on the ballot. So is the question of how many more thousands of American lives will be lost to this disease, and whether we will be able to meaningfully care for millions of the sick. Defend yourself! Defend your loved ones. Vote now if you can, or vote November 3!
October 26, 2020: MORE!
The two stories today that blended together in this drawing for me: the third, out of control surge of COVID, and the methodical push to appoint the backward judge to the Supreme Court. The feeling is that we are sitting on the edge of a full-blown disaster, powerlessly watching it happen. Do you feel this dread too? How much more of it can we take?
October 27, 2020: IMMACULATE CONFIRMATION
Another police murder, this time in Philadelphia, hundreds of thousands dead from COVID, disease spreading faster than ever, billionaires profiting from our misery, and the Regime found yet another way to corrupt and pervert justice. Hypocrisy and cruelty both are at play in the Supreme Court confirmation last night. An assault that is carefully calibrated to inflict maximum, long-term damage to our democracy, and personal freedoms and liberties.
October 28, 2020: IT’S ALL OVER. IT’S ALLOVER.
Yesterday the Regime declared that it had “ended the pandemic.” Half a million Americans tested positive for COVID just last week, providing the obvious evidence that the pandemic is far from over. The virus is allover the place. Stay safe. Protect yourself. Survive, to defeat this criminal enterprise posturing as our “leadership.”
October 29, 2020: MOB RULE
The Great Leader once again refers to American citizens protesting police brutality as “mob rule.” But we know where the real mob is, and we will never allow it to rule again. The true looting and plundering is done by white men in suits, not by the protesters in Philadelphia.
October 30, 2020: CHOICE.
As the election approaches, in just 4 short days, I am thinking about the consequences of our choices. A split second can have an impact lasting a lifetime. A fleeting moment resonating through generations into the future. Sudden idea, that lingers, like a seed, slowly expanding its hold on the earth. The thunder of now, and a long silence of roots. Can you hear it?
October 31, 2020: OUTSIDE of OURSELVES
Our home has been mangled beyond recognition. Our more perfect union deformed and abused. Despite, or perhaps because of it all, we must work together to build a way forward. To paraphrase the great Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “We must do something outside ourselves, something to repair tears in our community, something to make life a little better for people less fortunate than us.”
November 1, 2020: ALL THIS WILL FEEL LIKE A DREAM (SOMEDAY)
Just not quite yet.
November 2, 2020: THE END/THE BEGINNING
The End is here. Tomorrow, we will decide whether there will be a Beginning. The struggle for time continues.
November 3, 2020: The Last Report
The questions of “when will the project end?” or “how many Reports will be made?” were present for me from the very first week of the process, back in March. At first, I thought I would just make them until I run out of paper, or ink. Then folks came forward with offers to send me paper and found ink for me to keep going. Then, I thought, perhaps a month, or two, or three? As weeks rolled on, I have been looking for a “sign,” a moment in time that would make it clear that the project is over. A meaningful closure.
That moment is here, and the COVID-19: Labor Camp Report Project comes to an end.
As a nation we arrive at the precipice today, on November 3rd. A pivot, crucial juncture, a fork in the road, point of no return. What happens next begins the new chapter in the book of events. A book always opened in the middle. Looking out into, and beyond the scorched landscape, I feel hesitant and hopeful. Bewildered and frightened. Determined and emboldened. But also exhausted and deeply injured by the dark times we have endured together. My thoughts go toward healing and rebuilding.
Personally, after more than a thousand hours spent at the desk drawing every day, after 225 Reports, I will take a moment to regroup. The scope, and various outputs of the Report Project itself will require my attention in the coming months. There are exhibitions in the works, I will finally have the time to organize the printing of all the posters, and make them available as individual prints (so many of you requested this, that I feel I absolutely have to make it happen!) And, of course, there is the book that Frank and I have been working on, which is scheduled to come out in early 2021!
There are no words, with which I can adequately express my gratitude to all of you who joined me on this journey. Your sustained attention, countless conversations, words of encouragement and sharing motivated me to stay present and witness, working daily for more than 7 months. There is a real sense of community that emerged around this work: from the thousands engaging through social media, to hundreds who supported the Project so generously via Kickstarter, to scores who came forward volunteering to wheat paste prints in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Rochester, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, and Portland.
I am filled with love and gratitude for my Quarantine Family, who supported me in this crazy adventure in so many ways: sustaining me emotionally, but also made sure that I never ran out of materials and supplies (special shoutout to Pamela: my official liaison extraordinaire with Wet Paint in Saint Paul!), that the hundreds of cups of coffee kept coming, that there was always time in the schedule to make the drawing each and every day. And Ava, who held every single drawing for the front porch photo: a weird new ritual we performed together for months without break. I am humbled by it all, exhausted and exhilarated.
While the Report Project is over, I am motivated and inspired to continue producing and sharing new work. After all, at the Labor Camp, We Are Working All The Time! Stay tuned. Stay strong. I will see you on the other side of today!
Much love,
p.

Guest UserOctober 18, 2022

“COVID-19: Labor Camp Report” Captions

March 2020

April 2020

MAY 2020

June 2020

July 2020

AUGUST 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020