The Love in the Time of Coronavirus Project: J.P. Spicer-Escalante

September 2 - November 8, 2020

Featured exhibition in The Day After Tomorrow Community Response Space

A recent Pew Research survey revealed that a third of those polled indicated that they had experienced “high levels of psychological distress at some point during the extended period of social distancing undertaken to slow the spread of COVID-19.” J.P. Spicer-Escalante’s The Love in the Time of the Coronavirus Project documents how people have relied upon important relationships in their lives to alleviate the feelings of stress and dismay due to required social-distancing protocols and subsequent spikes in COVID-19 cases in our state.

Inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s understanding of the carnivalesque and heteroglossia, as well as Nobel-prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez’ novel Love in the Time of Cholera, Spicer-Escalante’s project is comprised of portrait photographs of a diverse group of Cache Valley residents with accompanying text from participants about their experiences during the current health emergency. Behind the safe façade of masks, gloves, and following proper social distancing requirements—as well as wearing clothing that they deemed representative of their COVID-19 experience—their hidden visages mockingly defy the pandemic as their lives continue to progress, in spite of the coronavirus. In their texts, the participants’ voices verbalize their perception of the unique zeitgeist of this time and space.

Spicer-Escalante’s desire is not only that both the participants and viewers feel emboldened by following the CDC’s protocols but that—just as the García Márquez novel’s fictional lovers, whose hope of being together sustains them through decades of turmoil—they also see the importance of personal relationships when faced with an epidemic like COVID-19. This project’s images are ultimately meant to give us hope that “we’ll get through this together” and achieve a better future for all, in spite of the threat to our community that the virus poses.

Spicer-Escalante, who has been at USU since 2003, is a Professor of Hispanic Studies.

This project is part of The Day After Tomorrow Community Response Space. Explore the full exhibition at The Day After Tomorrow: Art in Response to Turmoil and Hope.

This project is supported in part by Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah.