Art in the time of Covid
How do you know if what you make has meaning, relevance, lasting reverberations? Now that the world of live collaboration has come to a screeching halt and everything we make will inevitably be seen in relation to the global reality of forced separation and pause, our past work, too takes on new perspectives and meanings.
When Jessica and Laura made Lonely Now (reset) in 2018 they played with, worked with, lived with the stuffed white suits for so long that each “guy” took on a personality and they built relationships with each. They imbued the guys with life and movement, and the piece explored a range of emotions from anger and frustration to tenderness and love. Finally, Laura and Jessica emerge from their suits, at once free and lonely.
Now every front page of the NYTimes is adorned with the white suited heroes of Covid, some in physical or psychological distress themselves, and the rest of us try to imagine what the “front lines” looks like. The emotions in the white suited “guys” in Lonely Now (reset) contained all of those feelings in 2018, now perceived in a new light. Jessica, Laura and the guys were scheduled to perform a new version of the piece (retitled Lonely Now) at the Center for Performance Research in early April. Now the guys sit in our studio embodying what all the white suited workers are doing to keep us well and to help us when we are not.
Similarly, my songs of the last few years have all seemed in some way to revolve around the theme of connection – to others, nature, and the rest of the planet. Because of the political nature of some of them I wanted to get them into the world early in 2020. Now, with all of humanity thrown together separately into the experience of isolation, fear, and ultimate interdependence, the theme of connection has a very different resonance. How will We Fit Together fit into the 2020 world? How will political action and engagement take shape as we settle into, then work our way out of our sheltering? Will people hear it as hopeful or dark? How do I promote the record without seeming to jump on a covid opportunity? New world, new record, new questions.
