Coronavirus Queen of the May 2020 and 2022
'Coronavirus Queen of the May' was created for 'Depictions of Living 2' (Venice Arsenale, August 2022) from two sets of photographs of a performance to camera on 1 May 2020. The original performance was planned for inclusion in an exhibition in May 2020, but the exhibition was postponed.
I was trying to perform the old May Day ritual of washing my face in the morning dew to make myself more beautiful, but the constraints of the first UK coronavirus lockdown made that impossible.
My FFP3 mask is threaded through with flowers to make an anti-plague nosegay. I'm wearing as much PPE as I could get hold of.
My two photographers maintained the mandated 2m social distance from myself and each other, and recorded the performance independently.
I have stitched everything back together, but still there is that disconnect from the real thing. None of it feels real now, but I am still clinically vulnerable. I eventually caught Covid in March 2023 and lost my sense of smell completely. I have regained maybe 10% of it, but it feels like I am still wearing a mask all the time.
I was trying to perform the old May Day ritual of washing my face in the morning dew to make myself more beautiful, but the constraints of the first UK coronavirus lockdown made that impossible.
My FFP3 mask is threaded through with flowers to make an anti-plague nosegay. I'm wearing as much PPE as I could get hold of.
My two photographers maintained the mandated 2m social distance from myself and each other, and recorded the performance independently.
I have stitched everything back together, but still there is that disconnect from the real thing. None of it feels real now, but I am still clinically vulnerable. I eventually caught Covid in March 2023 and lost my sense of smell completely. I have regained maybe 10% of it, but it feels like I am still wearing a mask all the time.