THE NE W BEGINNINGS EDITION
P O S T- C O V I D
The social media push Andrew Borg Wirth — Architect and artist
The way social media reflected the politics of isolation triggered artist Andrew Borg Wirth to explore the subject more deeply. While his role and work as an artist did not change per se, this project remains pertinent as it could inspire the way we approach social media and even our social wellbeing from now onwards. The artist used the pandemic scenario as a source of inspiration for his art: he explored the psychological repercussions social media had on us. He also developed several projects pertinent to a post-pandemic world. During the lockdown, millions of people found themselves at home and more vulnerable to psychological attacks. Borg Wirth was struck by how “anonymous characters across social media contributed to further levels of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, misinformation and malice during this highly anxious period”. On being approached by a Netherlands-based shoe company Feraggio, he created a series of images that merge photography and social media comments. The company had reached out to creatives
around the world who have been struck by COVID-19 and left with a lot of lost work. For his project, he took photos of a shoe provided by Feraggio upon vast white Maltese clay slope faces, shot at different scales and from different distances. “Just like on endless social media feeds, it can be appreciated in detail at the greatest extent of zoom, or ignored like another fleeting moment we scroll past,” he explains. Then he juxtaposed these images with people’s racist and xenophobic comments. Other than this, Andrew has also worked alongside local creatives to develop concepts and ideas that reinvestigate the way that we can interface with audiences within a post-COVID world. These are currently at application stage. These projects include taking yourself to the theatre in times of social distancing; disseminating opera
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SOCIAL MEDIA CONTRIBUTED TO FURTHER LEVELS OF MISOGYNY, RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, MISINFORMATION AND MALICE DURING THIS HIGHLY ANXIOUS PERIOD
narratives and production (set design, costume, music and voice) without using a physical theatre; an art exhibition without access to art galleries/cultural venues and an analysis of the 'anxiety' of the present moment – which looks at how we use and abuse space within the current uncertain period. The creative industries were one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, but with projects such as this, they look set to come back certainly fresher and hopefully stronger than ever.