Walk to The Future – Coronavirus Art at War

Now here’s a piece of art that made me really step back and think – a true art purchase conundrum – shall I, or shan’t I? Keep it? Sell it? Do I even want it? Should art be exploiting the horror of this human crisis and haven’t I, and everyone, had enough of hearing about it by now anyway?

But then a moment of clarity shone through the darkness, surely this is exactly what art should be all about?! To shine a penetrating light on human experience, to incite extreme reaction in order to unveil the truth, especially in times of fear and uncertainty. Only by exploring darkness, can we come into the light. So, I thought, sod it, I’ve GOT to have this piece!

The artist is a French man called Frédéric Truteau who’s powerful work uses humour and derision as valuable artistic weapons. He likes to provoke the onlooker and as you can see has turned his satirical eye to coronavirus satire with this piece.  

The painting named ‘Walk to The Future’ created using acrylics, posca and spray paint on canvas shows a father and daughter both wearing face masks, whilst walking hand in hand, the father holds a gun to fight off the coronavirus and the daughter holds a dollar sign balloon. Is this depicting the horrific dilemma of choosing between life and death, or the economy?

Whatever you see in it, I hope this is only a temporary Walk to The Future. That the father puts his gun down, the politicians make the right decision about what to fight for and the kid bursts the balloon of consumerism, moving into a brighter, better future.

I feel angry, frustrated and extremely saddened that something invisible is attempting to destroy our world. Its’ desire to spread, infect and kill makes it the biggest enemy of the human race in my life time, not unlike an alien invasion. For me, surely the Walk to The Future must be about global connectivity, I believe the best way to fight an alien invasion is by uniting, not dividing.

The pain the coronavirus has caused, both emotionally and physically, to all people, has taken many different shapes and forms – from death, the gun, to financial loss, the dollar balloon. The ones suffering, the dying and the poor families having to deal with such unforeseen loss – truly have my heartfelt sympathy and condolences.

The worlds’ economy might be in tatters and countries are at logger heads trying to find someone to blame – human nature at its worst, but, in the meantime, nature is healing and repairing, taking a much needed holiday from human consumptionism.

Whatever your view of human nature vs nature is, people not being able to go out and live life as they usually do, is a small price to pay for ensuring that this disease slows down and hopefully dies out on its own, whilst nature does some healing. If this, as my new art work portrays, is a war, I hope everyone is clear about the side they are on, and, exactly what needs to be sent on its way to extinction.