Art exhibit remembers, honors U.S.’s 600,000 COVID deaths
“Remembering and Naming” is an art/artifact window to meditation and prayer.
The deaths of nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. from COVID-19 is an occasion to remember and name.
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lewes is hosting the continuation of an exhibit of art objects, each remembering significant moments in the toll of this pandemic and witnessing the ongoing struggles to find solace in these days. There are also aids to memorialize and put to remembrance – a tactile imaging of 600,000 deaths, a place to offer prayer and light a candle, a book of remembrance where visitors can remember specific persons by name, and a place to leave a note, a prayer or a word.
Several new art objects and artifacts are included in this continuing exhibition, including a new installation by master woodworker Roy Fitzgerald called “Witnesses,” consisting of eight wooden figures suggestive of the human spirit present. Several newer small works from the COVID year by printmaker Mark Harris will be shown for the first time, along with those major pieces shown previously.
The installation/art and artifact window to meditation and prayer is open through Sunday, May 30. Sunday hours are from noon to 3 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
Entry will be to the lower level, accessed from the corner of Third and Market streets. Visitors must wear masks and practice physical distancing. There will be guides to assist visitors.
Each of the art objects attempt to envision the numbers in ways that acknowledge our emotional response to the pandemic. “Catastrophe,” a relief print overlay on the New York Times pages listing 1,000 of the first 100,000 deaths; “Book of Numbers,” a two-volume bound set of books, the first with 230,000 number 1s, the second with 900,000 number 1s – the first is the number of U.S. deaths, the second the number of other deaths worldwide, as of All Saints Day 2020; “Hovering Spirits,” a silk-screen compilation of 500,000 dots on a 5-foot-by-13.5-foot board; “Eyes to see and Hearts to name,” an overlay on the New York Times edition of Feb. 21, 2021, with magnifying glasses; “Witnesses,” a grouping of eight wood carvings; two linocut prints “Presente!” and “Fair Forward Voyagers”; and one mixed media print, “I have fallen in love with the world,” an installation marking 600,000 deaths, “Every soul has worth,” a bowl of 600,000 mustard seeds.
