The Philippine arts in a time of COVID-19 quarantine
As stated in the article entitled, “Art, Environment, and Sustainability: Case Studies on the Philippine Art Practice, written by Ryanorlie B. Abeledo and Chona Camille E. Vince Cruz, “Art transcends various modes of communication, allowing it to trigger mental, emotional, and physical responses from its target audience.”
During the pandemic, many people suffered from depression; that is why the authority leading suicidal prevention had been active as they also emphasized it during October to publicize the awareness about mental health problems.
Many people lost their jobs, which are the source of livelihood of the people. Many died due to the virus. Many lost a loved one due to death, or long separation resulted from the almost year-long lockdown in some places. The pandemic brought a great change to the world, making it hard for the people to accept and adjust to the so-called ‘new normal.’
Arts, which is simply a form of recreation but considered a union between men, had contributed greatly to human beings positively. Arts is said to be the connection that binds human beings. It is a process of expressing emotions and feelings towards one another. According to the article that was written by Leo Tolstoy, entitled “What is Art?”, without it, people would be more hostile and separated from one another.
Paintings and digital artworks had been the source of living nowadays since the pandemic has started. Creative and artistic students sold these artworks to help their families survive this challenge. More than this, during the height of struggles when consecutive typhoons hit the Philippines, several donation drives had been made to collect funds for the typhoon victims.
According to the Communicator’s post, the official publication of the College of Communication in Polytechnic University of the Philippines, there has been a list of fundraising activities in which arts were used as a medium. That includes writing commissions in which written pieces of materials had been sold in exchange for an amount. The income was then transferred to the legitimate organizations which help people in times of calamities and pandemic.
Furthermore, the newly written songs of the artists became a big help as well for the people to not get stuck in this crisis, making them inspired that life must go on, as Rico Blanco, one of the artists in the Philippines, created a song entitled, “This too shall pass.”
Arts had been good for a person’s mental health as it had been an escape considering it as a form of recreation. It served as a source of living for many, and it is one of the things that saved the world somehow.
Here are the following examples of a work of art that was made during the COVID-19 quarantine in the Philippines:
References:
Abeledo, R.B. & Cruz, C. C. E. V. (2017, March 31). Art, Environment, and Sustainability: Case Studies on the Philippine Art Practice. Taylor & Francis Online. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1466046616000429
The Communicator. (2020, November 14). College of Communication (CoC) Donation Drive. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10159044959966804&type=3
Tolstoy, L. (1996, January 1). What is Art?. In Pevear. R. & Volokhonsky, L (Transl.). Penguin Classics.
