Dear Editor,
“Threads of Survival” is not the only textile based representation of the COVID 19 Pandemic, currently on view in the UK.
“The Covid Chronicle was set up by artist Wendy Bliss during the February UK Lockdown, 2021. The completed project is made up of 142 submissions from around the world, and the panels have been curated and stitched together into metre square blocks of four, making a total of 36 metres of work. The installation has been described as a “Bayeux Tapestry” for the 21st century pandemic, and records personal experience in words as well as pictures: each artist has been invited to add words to support their panel for this extraordinary collection; these are often poetic or moving and always interesting”(1).
It represents a fascinating insight into how a creative section of the community in several countries viewed the pandemic. A few of the texts rehash the media messages of the period but usually a much wider and more original range of views is presented.
Having been exhibited in six locations around England this year, it can currently be seen until the 7th January 2023 in the Williamson Museum and Art Gallery, Birkenhead and afterwards from 14th January to 25th February 2023, in Wales, at Studio 40, Neath.
In contrast to “Threads of Survival”, a fitting permanent home has been offered to the tapestry in the foyer of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Roland Salmon
Consultant Epidemiologist (retd)
Cardiff, UK
The Covid Chronicle: another crafted response to the pandemic