The year 2020. 

The maelstrom of a pandemic reminds us that humans are fundamentally social and mobile creatures: philosophically, emotionally and existentially. 

History shows that in order to be safe from nature and others, humans created complex systems of care and security transmitted through law, education, religion and policy. These systems demand the transfer of free will to an Oracle who promises care, comfort and co-existence amid large and diverse peoples.

Alas, a headache.

Tempest’s attendant, disease, rises from the Oracle’s neck as migraine and lodges itself into a thumping headache. We are placed in the midst of this headache; one that commenced in winter and continues to edge into the deep wells of spring, summer and possibly, farther.

A winter’s tale of coughs and sniffles transmogrified into an unshakeable bug that had quacks enrich on apothecary potential while people ravaged aisles of consumables. 

Meanwhile, the bug continues to consume the thoracic and tracheal systems of the embodied self and its nation-state.

Invisible lines of nation-states disappear as governments fall ill ‘etherised upon a table’ (Eliot). Yes, there are no lines of nation-states for tourists to cross or flights to arrive at. Cities fall silent, clouds part and nature returns. Perhaps it is the revenge of modernity against the globalised world. Modernity’s allies – alienation, isolation and distangled power – seem to return with a vengeance. 

All love and labour are lost, as these etherised bodies commence an expensive game of blame and isolation. Blame the other, financialise my kin. Banish the other, isolate my kin.

The shamans of everyday life are nowhere to be found. In a morality play of virus, poison, antidote and victimisation (Derrida’s pharmakon), we seek a remedy. We continue to seek as  pharmacologists and scientists race time as public health officials keep watch as crowd-controllers. 

We are left alone: abandoned by gods, isolated by humans. 

Fortunately, in our midst, the digital world swells considerably with ideas, conversations and debates which are organised around home-based work and learning and socialisation and e-engagements on Zoom. In this alchemy of transformation and creativity, we are not any closer to reality. Un…fortunately, we are in a recurring dream that continues to manufacture reality. 

Oh, fortune’s fool, the headache.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Venka Purushothaman is Provost at LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. An educational leader and award-winning art writer, he has a distinguished career in the cultural and creative industries in Singapore. He is currently editor of Issue, an international peer-reviewed art journal. Venka is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, France, (AICA Singapore), Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, UK, and University Fellow, Musashino Art University, Japan.