For her public art installation “Reflecting on our Pandemic Experience,” Arlington designer, artist and storyteller Nilou Moochhala had “100 mixed media drawings digitally printed into meditation flags to create an inviting space for healing and contemplation” at Arlington’s Menotomy Rocks Park, according to Arts Arlington, which is presented by the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture. The project, on view in the pine woods through Nov. 20, was overseen by public art curator Cecily Miller.
“Beginning on March 13, 2020 Arlington designer, artist and storyteller Nilou Moochhala engaged in a daily meditative drawing practice which continued for a year. At a time of chaos, fear, uncertainty, and isolation, this practice offered a way to process and portray the emotional, mental, and physical feelings of living under lockdown,” according to organizers.
As the group’s spring artist-in-residence, Moochhala “interviewed leaders in town government – the town manager, fire chief, Robbins Library head of circulation and a Select Board member. She reached out to front-line workers, teachers, medical professionals, local business owners, public housing residents, and inventor/entrepreneurs. She talked to the new parents of a ‘pandemic baby,’ middle-school and college students, working parents and retired seniors. Some of the stories she heard were heart-breaking, most were inspiring accounts of community service, resourcefulness, and resiliency,” organizers write.
Moochhala selected a resonant word from the interviews and sometimes symbolic imagery that she included in drawings.
In addition to the woods installation, Moochhala has paired quotes pulled from some of interviews with the drawings inspired by her conversations for display at Kickstand Cafe in For Arlington Center.
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