Piotr Szyhalski / Labor Camp | COVID-19: Labor Camp Report

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Thinking about different ways of expanding the lockdown. And this from the Boston Globe: “Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world’s richest country to a season of untold suffering. [...] The president has blood on his hands.”

April 5, 2020: LOCKDOWN

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Pondering the notion casually floated by our “leadership” that some will need to die in order to save the “economy”...

March 24, 2020: Long Live Our Banks!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

It was originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account.

March 25, 2020: Open it Up!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I drew the image of the coffin with a dollar sign on it in 2015 for a project entitled “THEM”, also known as “The Banner Project”. I can’t stop thinking about how frighteningly specific it seems today. The debasing mathematics of death and profit. The warped logic of perverted ideology.

The rampant thievery, and lies.

March 26, 2020: Your DEATH is Their PROFIT.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Good Morning! This one is a little different. Acknowledging the ritual of morning onslaught: Numbers, anxiety, more numbers, fear, numbers.

March 27, 2020: GOOD MORNING!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Winning it!

March 28, 2020: LEADER of The Free World!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

At the edge of time.

March 29, 2020: Stay Home!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I was listening to a brief interview Noam Chomsky gave on the subject of the Coronavirus pandemic yesterday. He kept mentioning the concept of Neoliberal Plague. This drawing is about the Real Plague of which COVID-19 is merely a symptom.

March 30, 2020: PLAGUE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The image of a tree with its limbs cut off had been haunting me recently. It surfaces in different places and contexts. It was in the landscape of the second drawing in the Covid Report series, and also as a book cover image for a collection of poems by Jesse Lee Kercheval called “Year By Year: A Life”. In this drawing I am making a more direct connection to The Tree of Jesse: depiction of a tree growing out of the body of Jesse Of Bethlehem. This vision is a kind of precursor of the idea of “family tree”, except in my drawing it reveals the numbers of deaths flowing out of severed limbs of the tree. From left to right the numbers are: Italy, The World, China, Poland, USA, and the state of Minnesota. I check the data daily, sometimes multiple times each day, and I use the nCoV2019.live site for that. The site allows you to customize the view, and puts selected locations at the top of the page, producing a user defined experience of suffering. The 6 numbers in the image are my “top list”. This in and of itself feels twisted in how technology filters our sense of reality. Which is why in my drawing the body of Jesse is replaced by a smartphone.

March 31, 2020: Numbers Tree

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Everything that can be perverted, will be perverted. Saw the photographs of parking lots in Las Vegas yesterday, with the social distancing lines painted on the ground, so that homeless can sleep while adhering to the pandemic safety rules. We are living in the grotesque abundance of wrong.

April 1, 2020: 6ft. apart.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Drowning in poison

April 2, 2020: ADDRESS TO THE NATION.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Amen.

April 3, 2020: COVID COMMUNION

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Once the issue is framed as “war,” it is back to normal. It’s the American way. I am thinking of the endless wars, the grotesque amount of resources consumed by the insatiable war machine, the ultimate excuse to tighten the reins of control and evade culpability. Except this time we are fighting the “invisible enemy.”

April 4, 2020: WAR!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The $1,200 seems like a meaningless handout, the actual purpose of which is to hide who the real enemy is.

April 6, 2020: INVISIBLE ENEMY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Holding elections at the peak of deadly pandemic is unethical, criminal, and unconscionable. The regime does not even attempt to hide its relentless efforts at voter suppression. Democracy’s dying breath is sounding out in Wisconsin today.

April 7, 2020: No! (Wisconsin Edition)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Presidential task force: daily dose of lies, deceit and snake oil.

April 8, 2020: TASK FORCE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

In this Report, we acknowledge our “leadership’s” desire for continuous congratulations. We see your “accomplishments,” and we will never forget what you have done.

April 9, 2020: Congratulations!

April 10, 2020: WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Yes! Change is coming! From anguish comes hope. From devastation comes renewal. From death springs life. Contemplating ways to turn the tragedy into opportunity. Subvert its destructive energy, and allow it to propel us forward into a better future. A companion to the “No!” Report from April 7, reminding us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

April 11, 2020: Yes!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Reflecting on the feelings of solitude and awe. On being engulfed by something magnificent yet deadly. Astonishing and suffocating.

April 12, 2020: BREATHTAKING.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I am pondering the grave implications of “restarting the economy.” I am thinking of the heartless calculations of the “leadership” regarding the price of the “cure” and the extent of the “problem.” The ruling class only cares about its wealth and power. They are the problem. We are the cure.

April 13, 2020: THE CURE AND THE PROBLEM

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Yesterday pronouncements of our “leader” about his total authority over our lives more openly than ever move us closer yet to an all out totalitarian regime. I report today with an image balancing three visual references: 1. the 1932 Hitler presidential election poster; 2. The 1939 “Keep Calm and Carry On” British war poster; 3. ... but with Corona beer crown.

April 14, 2020: TOTAL AUTHORITY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Hello World! Defunding the World Health Organization in the midst of pandemic is a novel move in the grotesque dance of death, American style.

April 15, 2020: Welcome!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

We are all under ruthless control. When the United States Secretary of the Treasury says that $1200 should be enough to live on for 10 weeks in this country, you realize the extent of brazen thievery that defines the current regime.

April 16, 2020: ALL UNDER CONTROL

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The regime is just one tiny rhetorical step away from telling us all: “Work will set you free.”

April 17, 2020: IT’S YOUR JOB TO DIE.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The three numbers today represent current COVID-19 deaths in Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota: states the regime singled out for their “liberation.” I am thinking a lot about phones in all this. How much of the pandemic experience plays out through/with the phone. Of course in this case: a phone in the wrong hand. Now “liberated.”

April 18, 2020: LIBERATE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Salut to the absurd brilliance of all the idiots protesting the measures put in place to protect their own lives. Also, my personal favorite, how anything they don’t like is “communism.” So, taking it to the only logical conclusion here.

April 19, 2020: DEATH = COMMUNISM!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I can't be the only one feeling temporally and physically disoriented by the experience of the last few weeks. I am in my head, in my home, but also outside, and everywhere in the world simultaneously. Nothing happens, panic holds for days, or explodes and disappears in an instant. Turmoil shifting places at will: it's there, and suddenly here with me. In my hand. Monotonous intensity. Silence and catastrophe. Do you feel it too'

April 20, 2020: EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

In many ways the word “great” had been stolen from us. We, and our “greatness” are being held hostage. I think of it just as the “leadership” decided to suspend the immigration to the US. Our house had been plundered and, step by step, turned into a prison. We are living in a failed state.

April 21, 2020: GREAT.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I am not ashamed to admit that I see the crash of the oil market as hopeful news. I believe this is one of the harbingers of the better world ahead. Let's keep it in the ground.

April 22, 2020: $0 NON-ESSENTIAL. (Honor the Earth)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

It feels like we can’t do anything about it. But there are also things we are supposed to do. What is “it”' And what did I do about “it”' I am asking this question of myself, and fully acknowledge the fact that doing nothing may very well be doing something. What is our agency today, in this different world' And with that, what is our responsibility, and accountability'

April 23, 2020: WHAT DID I DO TODAY?

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Half snake oil sales pitch, half Chairman Mao. Who can doubt the healing force of Powerful Light'

April 24, 2020: DISINFECTANT INJECTION MANUAL

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There is not much to say about this. Just that it needs to be said.

April 25, 2020: LIES! LIES. LIES...

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Protect yourself and those around you. The disconnect between the spring awakening and the grief for the world in turmoil is palpable. Do you feel it too'

April 26, 2020: THERE IS NO IMMUNITY.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

We have always known that we deliver death through pollution. But early research coming out of Italy, indicates that pollution and COVID may work in tandem increasing our deadly efficiency. So many lessons for the world emerging from this disaster.

April 27, 2020: WE DELIVER!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The truth is dead. Or not. And if it isn’t, it might be dying in the hallways of crowded hospitals, in nursing homes, or it fades away in the solitude of quarantined homes. Truth has been systematically dismantled for years, but the plague brought it to its knees in new disastrous ways. Will we ever trust again'

April 28, 2020: IT’S TRUE! (OR NOT.) Believe It! (OR NOT.)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The official death toll in the U.S. is nearly 60,000 and there are now over 1,000,000 cases of people diagnosed with the disease here. I read stories about the hospital workers holding up cellphones so their patients can say goodbye to loved ones. So much of the death is experienced through our phones. The ultimate corporeal experience of the human condition, reduced to a touch of a perfectly machined, glass surface.

April 29, 2020: Here. Now.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Many things converge, for me, in this meat still life: 1. I began with the reports of the regime ordering the meat plants to continue their operation, despite thousands of cases of employees and meat inspectors being diagnosed with the deadly disease. 2. Further, in general, acknowledging the gross mismanagement of food resources leading to tons of vegetables being buried, thousands of gallons of milk being wasted, while millions of people line up in food lines because they can’t afford the next meal. 3. Realizing yet another opportunity brought to us by the pandemic: to re-evaluate our cruelty laden addiction to meat, which coincidentally, significantly contributes to the ongoing environmental disaster. 4. Remembering, that in Polish “still life” [martwa natura] literally means “dead nature.” 5. Wishing good luck to us all [see above].

April 30, 2020: Good Luck!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Growing up in Poland decades ago, I recall us being forced to march in May 1st parades staged as a performance of support for the oppressive regime. Today, in America, people are being forced to work in conditions threatening their lives. Capitalism or communism: oppression does not have a systemic designation. Police beat insubordinates everywhere with the same brutality.

May 1, 2020: 1 MAY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Of course they think it’s a success. In one month, as the deadly pandemic rages, America’s billionaires increased their wealth by $282,000,000,000. Their money bags are our body bags.

May 2, 2020: THE GREAT Success STORY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Nearly 3,000 people died of COVID-19 on Friday. We often use 9/11 as a sort of national grief reference point. So the realization that we now have entered a stage, at which we relive the tragedy of this magnitude daily, helps to put things in context. The heavy silence present in images from that day was resonating in my mind as I drew these figures. One by one.

May 3, 2020: At the Edge of Time.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

It’s amazing: a few weeks ago, I felt my home would protect me and my loved ones from the raging disease. Today, I feel that I need to protect my home from the deadly arrogance and ignorance proliferating around.

May 4, 2020: Inside Out, Upside Down,

May 5, 2020: DOUBLE DEATH (BY JUNE)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

My friend Sam wrote these words two days ago. I saw them online, surrounded by reports of grief and pain. By anger and hatred. And they reminded me, that in the midst of it all, we still, and always, long for tenderness and love. I am thinking of all those who brave it alone.

Expectant and defiant. The hugs will come. Though not yet. We need to hold on a little longer. Maybe much longer. But the day will come.

May 6, 2020: Until Hugs.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I am pro testing: we need more testing widely available. Instead of factual information, we are receiving lies, and staged “protests” rooted in ignorance. Both of these issues remain trapped in the space framed on one hand by science and transparency, and on the other, by political manipulation.

May 7, 2020: PRO TESTING! ANTI IGNORANCE.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

About the endless, nauseating, self-congratulatory proclamations of victory and success. About the lie we live within, where words no longer mean what they used to.

May 8, 2020: Victory!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

For all the nurses. A century later, I reprise this iconic poster from 1917, which has always been one of my inspirational favorites. My mother is a nurse, I myself had earned a Red Cross Nurse certificate in my youth. To this day I aspire to work in the spirit of helpful service.

May 9, 2020: The GREATEST MOTHER in the WORLD.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

As we are taught lessons of empathy and strength by Nurses, and acknowledge the selfless, limitless care at the center of Motherhood. As nature begins to reclaim spaces we have taken from Her, I am asking: how do we move forward and care for our Mother Earth'

May 10, 2020: MOTHER NATURE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Our “leadership” devised an efficient, three-phased approach to re-opening America. I noticed that the official document was missing diagrams visualizing the essence of the process. It’s very simple.

May 11, 2020: Three-Phased Approach.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Language is a virus.

May 12, 2020: THEY LIE, WE DIE.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There is an incomprehensible quality about the numbers I hear or read about, no matter the context. Whether it’s wealth or misery, the abstraction engulfs the reality. Except perhaps for the faint realization, that some of them belong in one world, and others in a completely different one.

May 13, 2020: Trillions Billions Millions Thousands

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

As governments everywhere lift the “shelter-in-place” measures, I am experiencing a deepened sense of insecurity. My home at first seemed to be a safe space, then it felt vulnerable to encroaching ignorance, and now I feel even less protected than when the quarantine was put in place weeks ago. It’s so disappointing to see the positive impact of physical distancing be squandered for the benefit of “economy” which simply means: profit for the ruling class.

May 14, 2020: DE-QUARANTINED.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

America’s obsession with guns has always been about killing. So it’s not surprising that it managed to corrupt the implementation of shelter-in-place safety measures. Here are additional illustrations from the official “Re-open America” guidelines document. For additional information see the May 11 Report.

May 15, 2020: A: OPEN CARRY. B: CONCEAL CARRY.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Despite the clear and deadly implications, the regime is pushing the “re-opening” onto us.

When the pandemic arrived in the US, it was not a surprise: we could see it coming from Europe. We could see its devastation in plain sight. Yet we let it sweep over the country, and claim its deadly toll. We know the second wave is coming, and we are letting it swallow us again.

May 16, 2020: YES! WE ARE OPEN!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I am tired. I wonder how many of you feel the same way: battered by the onslaught of uncertainty, pain, doubt. Unable to consider anything in the future with even a modicum of confidence. The sustained beating of news shrapnel. The inner struggle between the need for all this to be over, and the desire to survive, to sleep it all away. And the nagging realization that none of it is normal.

May 17, 2020: Normal.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Back at it: our “leadership” peddling snake oil for their own benefit. Pretend the problem is solved, force people back to work, profit. Meanwhile US Coronavirus deaths have surpassed the combat deaths of US servicemen in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

May 18, 2020: IT WILL GO AWAY!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The blooming crabapple tree in front of our house, and mechanical ventilator diagram. The two worlds, the same world. Same time.

May 19, 2020: Ventilator

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

What will happen' How will the world be different after COVID-19' Will we go back to the way things were before' We are all asking these questions. I think about them too. And while the pandemic revealed just how profoundly broken our world is, some things are worth protecting.

Some things should stay exactly the way they always were. For that to happen, we will have to commit to working towards a greener future. Closer to each other. Closer to earth."

May 20, 2020: BEFORE AFTER

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

It’s as if the con artist regime is going out of its way to invent new ways of killing us for a quick buck.

May 21, 2020: HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

How else do you explain the relentless mocking and sowing confusion about the role of the face mask. The fact that people somehow rebel against wearing protective masks is a testimony to the effectiveness of the malicious manipulations by the con artist regime.

May 22, 2020: MALICE, of COURSE. (AGAIN & AGAIN)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There are some words which are lingering in my head, that will forever be connected to this moment in time. They form a kind of internal COVID Lexicon. Stockpile is one of them. Human resources. Work force. Cargo. Commodity.

May 23, 2020: STOCKPILE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

What gets memorialized, and what must be remembered. What is remembered, and what is forgotten, and how rarely do we have agency over which is which. All this after I saw a woodpecker on the side of my house, and it instantly made me think of COVID-19 test procedure. I know: It doesn’t make sense. None of it does.

May 24, 2020: Remember.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

If I were a landscape painter, this is the scene I would paint to capture the essence of our failed state.

May 25, 2020: Fig. 63 A Failed State.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

They are lying about everything. What happened, didn’t happen; what is happening is not really happening; what will happen, will not. But we are watching. We know. We will remember.

May 26, 2020: REWRITING OF HISTORY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

George Floyd was killed by the police on Monday. He was strangled in broad daylight, on camera, at this corner, while multiple people pleaded with the police to take their knee off his neck. It is important to acknowledge the fact that the same, inherently racist, systemic dynamic which facilitated the murder of George Floyd, is also the reason why twice as many Black Americans die of COVID-19 as whites. Tragedy within tragedy. Black Lives Matter, and we can not let this go on.

May 27, 2020: I CAN’T BREATHE! IF IT’S NOT COVID, IT’S THE POLICE. (Black Lives Matter)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

As my city burned, we have crossed the threshold of 100,000 fallen to the plague. The loss of every single life is a catastrophe. Yet today I am again thinking of tragedies nested within each other, interconnected. The line connecting each individual death to the epic scale of the world grief is only one breath long.

May 28, 2020: 100,426 GONE.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The fact that even during the pandemic, as a People, we need to fight against the deadly grip of racist, systemic injustice is a testimony to our social failure. There is a rotten, morally debased culture that is eating away at whatever is left of our collective identity. I believe though, that the plague does bring an opportunity to renew our commitment to empathy. And that if we work hard together, we can lay foundation for a healthier, more equitable, and just future. Black Lives Matter. Enough is enough.

May 29, 2020: THEY WILL BEAT YOU IF YOU SPEAK AGAINST THEM. (BLM)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Our city is disappearing.

May 30, 2020: CHAOS

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

We have heard a lot about essential work in recent months. But the events of the last few days brought into focus the true meaning of these words. The time for essential work of eradicating racism is now. Black Lives Matter.

May 31, 2020: ESSENTIAL WORK (BLM)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I saw this hawk flying over our heads yesterday, when we delivered food to a donation site. So much care, selflessness and love. Staggering amounts of food shared. And expressions of care and empathy filled the air. We know how to protect each other. The community is strong.

June 1, 2020: PROTECT EACH OTHER. (G.F.)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

A message from my dear friend Colette Gaiter: “Understanding that black lives matter should be as natural as breathing—as natural as it is to us. To completely act on that you must first find your own humanity. As Toni Morrison said, “the function of freedom is to free someone else.” Free yourself first.” Thank you for these beautiful words!

June 2, 2020: Blackout (Blackout Tuesday)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Reflecting on worlds inextricably connected, parallel, yet unequal. Experiences real and unreal. Shared and suppressed. Privilege of beauty and burden of fear. Tumult of togetherness.

June 3, 2020: Peonies and Fire

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Yesterday’s report acknowledged the parallel realities of fire and peonies. Today, on the day of His Memorial, I want both worlds to come together, and embrace George Floyd on His final journey.

June 4, 2020: REST IN POWER! (George Floyd)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Somehow, a space for meaningful dialogue got poisoned by capital and politics. And here we are now, in a moment of precarious balance. Reality designed to collapse at any time. Domestic barricades.

June 5, 2020: TODAY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The two viruses. Thinking about empathy, the spaces between our bodies, the impact and the consequences. Social and ethical convulsions.

June 6, 2020: THE SHAME.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Racism and the pandemic are intertwined along the systemic lines of inequity, oppression, and exploitation. Both are deadly, infectious, and the regime would have us believe that neither is really a problem.

June 7, 2020: DEFUND VICIOUS DOGS AND OMINOUS WEAPONS

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The Regime Bible.

June 8, 2020: ONE LAW

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

So many poisons in this image... Eternally corrupting evil of money, violence and power. The amount of money spent on police is obscene. It’s time to defund.

June 9, 2020: Poison.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The COVID pandemic has reawakened our visceral understanding of mass suffering. This country was built on stolen land, by forced, stolen labor, and our history is swollen with a cornucopia of cruelty.

June 10, 2020: MASS SUFFERING

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There is an element of poetic justice in how COVID arrived in America as a sort of reenactment of the disease brought here by the Old World centuries ago. Now that statues of Columbus are being toppled, we recognize, that this is the end. The genocidal luxury cruise is over. Time to wake up from the colonial wet dream: The false empire is crumbling.

June 11, 2020: THE END.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

We understand fairness and justice instinctively. Its denial is unnatural. It thrives in our interconnectedness, love, empathy and community. It is a foundation of our humanity, and, of course, with no justice, there is no peace.

June 12, 2020: JUSTICE IS PEACE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There is more than $500,000,000,000 that the Regime took from the taxpayers. They will not tell us where our money went. The rich are multiplying their wealth on the backs of sick and dying. They are looting our country. What are we going to do about it'

June 13, 2020: Psst!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

[double-sided drawing]

As the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone thrives in Seattle, and communities all around the US are constructing frameworks for mutual care, and without police. I am thinking of inward and outward protective spaces we hold within and for each other.

June 14, 2020: BE MY REFUGE.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The corrupt machines of capitalist domain. Seemingly imperceptible, because absent from history books, systematic transition from slavery to prison-industrial complex. The ultimate hostage workforce. And the perverted need for brutality as a means of disciplining the working class.

June 15, 2020: Luxury & BRUTALITY

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I read today Chomsky saying that the Regime “has adopted the ‘Viva Death!’ approach.” While I can see that the Regime will choose death for profit any time, I do not understand why people decided that the disease no longer concerns them. Wear your mask! If you don’t want to do it for yourself or for those around you, do it against the Regime.

June 16, 2020: LONG LIVE DEATH!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

This Latin phrase would mark the unexplored areas on the early maps. “There were dragons there,” because we often fear the unknown. The amazing thing about today is that the scariest things are precisely the things we know everything about. And there are so many dragons here.

June 17, 2020: HIC SVNT DRACONES

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

I wonder how many of us really think about that. It’s clear that the Regime does not care about you or me. So we need to protect each other, save our lives. Please, wear your mask.

June 18, 2020: Your Breath is a WEAPON.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The point at which something begins is also a point at which something ends. Locating those points is never easy, and often only truly possible in retrospect.

June 19, 2020: Thresholds. (Juneteenth)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Hatred is taught.

June 20, 2020: BORN ANTIFA

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The Regime’s approach to eradicating a deadly disease: 1. Announce victory; 2. Eliminate testing; 3. Observe fading numbers of disease cases; 4. Point out how lucky we all are for having the Regime’s “leadership.""

June 21, 2020: NO TESTING = NO DISEASE

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

There is of course the childish notion, that if you just close your eyes, it all goes away, that our Regime embraces. Then there is the idea of history that is constantly manipulated, and because of that, in truth, entirely inaccessible. But there is also the fact, that we are witnessing this historic moment, and that we must not let our experiences slip into the oblivion of time. And more.

June 22, 2020: THE PLAGUE IS HISTORY.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

This point in time. This time. No time. All the time. Any time. Out of time. In The Current Moment. The Defining Moment. Any moment now. Now or never. This moment. A Pivotal moment.

June 23, 2020: A PIVOTAL MOMENT

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The Plague further erased the distinction between living space and work space. Between work time and leisure time. Not only because so many began to routinely work from home, but also because we have developed a better understanding that there are so many different labors.

June 24, 2020: FROM THE WOMB TO THE TOMB

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

The Regime keeps telling us that “testing is a double-edged sword.” Here is the other edge.

June 25, 2020: TWO-FACED TYRANTS FALL ON THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Do you feel the constant sense of urgency, combined with a diffused, fractured and undirected purpose' Either not knowing what to do, or being unable to prioritize among the litany of issues that demand instant attention' A stunted emergency that requires immediate action, or no action at all, where even doing nothing feels like an act of vigilant awareness' I give you FONDE: Fear Of Not Doing Enough. (This classic finger pointing theme in propaganda designs typically gives you a concrete actionable directive. I emptied it of specific purpose, leaving only the ambiguous, anxiety laden tension. I feel it all the time.)

June 26, 2020: You! (DO SOMETHING)

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

In the early reports, I used fire as a way of representing the spread of the disease. Later, as my city burned, the fire became a very real presence in the landscape of the uprising. Today, I am thinking of the flames of distrust and hatred stoked by the Regime. The lines of division. They are describing massive infection outbreaks as “hot spots,” but fires burn bright between each and every one of us.

June 27, 2020: Fig. 96: Hot Spots.

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

Masks and violent histories go hand in hand. The masks worn in the past to hide the racist identities, and the refusal to wear the protective masks today. Hatred, obfuscation, arrogance, ignorance and inconsideration, all seem to resonate whenever questions of our collective identity emerge. Who are we' And who do we aspire to be'

June 28, 2020: UNMASKED

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

So much of the pandemic experience unfolds through the constant stream of social media feeds. Not just the plague, but the rest of the political and cultural landscape becomes contorted in the collective, cyclic regurgitation. The viral nature of the feed has been with us for a while, but new strands of deviant infections seem to propagate now even more feverishly than ever before.

June 29, 2020: THE FEED

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

More absurd salesmanship from the con artist Regime. Relentless beating of the self-congratulatory, toxic lies. Winning it again!

June 30, 2020: We Saved Lives!

This artwork is part of the series COVID-19: Labor Camp Report.   

Artist's statement on this artwork originally published on the @laborcamp Instagram account: 

100 days since I started this project! It began when we needed to stay at home for our safety. Today, as a nation, we are so sick, that Europe will not accept us for their own safety. The Regime, which so desperately wanted to build walls, in the end, gets walled in by the outside world.

July 1, 2020: UNWELCOME AIR

On March 24, 2020, Minneapolis-based artist Piotr Szyhalski embarked on a daily drawing practice responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded in real time. What began as a way for the artist to share observations of life in lockdown and the pain caused by the pandemic quickly became a daily exercise of chronicling his thoughts and feelings and reconciling them with the changes being wrought in the world. 

COVID-19: Labor Camp Report consists of 225 drawings created over eight months that fall under Szyhalski’s ongoing artistic framework, Labor Camp. New drawings were posted daily on Instagram, serving as a witness to the unfolding crisis and a record of time, both labored and lost. 

Szyhalski’s work addresses themes ranging from time, home, and resilience to misinformation, greed, authoritarianism, and police brutality. The series’ bold messages and images call us to action, ask us to question what is happening in our world, and most importantly, inspire hope and solidarity. 

While the pandemic is far from over, we hope COVID-19: Labor Camp Report offers you an opportunity to reflect on both the events of the past year and your own experiences of this turbulent moment. 

April 5, 2020: LOCKDOWN, 4/5/2020

Piotr Szyhalski / Labor Camp