In this exhibit, we explore how people and their individualities still thrive in a period where mandated masks cover the most unique part of a person: their face. Most interestingly, we bridge the time periods of when masks were used solely as safety precautions to when masks became a source of both fashion and safety. We sampled the stories of people from all walks of life and, as expected, no two masks and no two stories were the same. Even though we serve the same purpose of keeping others and ourselves safe from Covid-19, we all accomplish it by wearing different masks with different stories.
At the start of the pandemic, many people were wearing single-use surgical masks, as they thought that this pandemic was not going to last long. However, as time went on, we soon realized that this virus was going to stick around for longer than expected. With the surgical masks constantly breaking or falling apart, and with doctors and nurses needing as many of these surgical masks as possible, we needed to switch to an alternative. If wearing masks would become the new lifestyle, we needed to switch to something that would last longer. This prompted many to switch to cloth masks, which are more durable and more comfortable.
Since these cloth masks would have to be worn every day, many also wanted to wear something that they are proud to wear, something that represents who they are, something that they believe that they will look good in. Nowadays, you can walk down any street and see two people near each other wearing two completely different looking masks. But, have you ever wondered why they chose that particular mask with that particular design? Our goal with this exhibit is to bring the answer to this question to light and to reveal the stories behind these masks. We want everyone who is viewing this to realize that we have come together as a society to slow the spread of Covid-19 while still expressing our individuality through these masks.
By compiling images of different people with their unique masks on, we aimed to search for the answer as to why these individuals chose their particular masks with particular designs. We chose to gather individual pictures of people from all ends of New York City to highlight the story of how their masks have allowed them to express themselves and cope with the challenges of this pandemic. For instance, a simple black mask maintains ambiguous meanings as for one, it can serve as an accessory, while for another, it shields the person from the negative forces of the outside world.
It is important for us to separately put individuals on display with their masks on in order to emphasize that during these uncertain and challenging times, masks have not only become a safety necessity but a form of expression that unites individuals from all ends of the world. If you think about wearing a mask, it conceals the most expressive parts of your face, so by shifting from the generic blue medical masks to masks of various designs, we provide an outlet to express and share our individuality. We as a society have created a form of solidarity through masks of innumerable designs, and by assembling an exhibit that tells these individual stories, we are able to identify how each person has collectively contributed to this new style of uniformity.
We implore you all to visit our exhibit, to read every unique story, and to discover how individualism truly shines in the harsh face of uniformity.
