Fattening the curve (2020)
Janelle Alanguilan
Made at the height of the 2020 UK lockdowns, this video performance piece aims to subvert the concept of the ‘curvature’ plotted on the world’s coronavirus fatalities graph. By substituting an upside down Amazon smile logo with this curve, and plotting it on a graph that simultaneously shows the increase in net worth of the company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, with the world’s rising death toll, the piece presents one man’s financial gain alongside the loss of life since the pandemic began. Although the two are not directly linked, this idea puts into question the value of human life versus capital in the age of COVID-19. The artist records herself eating Chinese takeaway on the PhotoBooth app to tie in key concepts. Namely, the closure of many dine-in restaurants which have been replaced by the food delivery industry (and the dangers this might impose on its low-paid workers); the stigma and racist ideologies that are starting to form around Chinese and Asian communities due to the origins of the virus; and the imposition of lockdown measures pushing most human interactions (like eating together) into the virtual.
