Join us on Friday, February 24 at 5:30 PM, for a reception to celebrate student work featured in our latest exhibition, Pandemic Pondering. Curated by Azra Aksamija, the exhibit features large-format images of COVID masks created by MIT students that commemorate personal and/or collective pandemic experiences. The reception will be held in collaboration with MIT Architecture's Student Council.
Pandemic Pondering, an exhibition curated by Azra Aksamija, Director of the Art, Culture, and Technology Program at MIT, is on view at MIT’s Keller Gallery through March 5. Through large-format images of COVID masks created by MIT students, the exhibit takes as its subject the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic left a severe mark on the global economy and exacerbated social inequalities, shedding light on the many planetary urgencies that can no longer be ignored. This exhibition showcases artistic COVID masks created by MIT students in Azra Aksamija’s classes in 2021. Students were asked to design and fabricate masks functioning as cultural prostheses that commemorate personal and/or collective pandemic experiences.
While the virus survives and mutates through human transmission, the mask hides our facial expressions and individuality, ultimately erasing our humanity. The masks featured in this show, however, re-inscribe that humanity with messages that are both critical and humorous. These masks reveal how to find strength, inspiration, and hope for the future in a moment in which weakness, cynicism, and despair seem so easy to surrender to. This exhibition celebrates the work of students who create art to expose the inequality of the world during the pandemic and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced.
Learn more about the exhibit.
Pandemic Pondering
On view February 10–March 5, 2023
MIT Keller Gallery, 77 Mass Ave, 7-408, Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, MA,
