Chronicling the Coronavirus

Indian miniature paintings are a narrative-driven style of art that is native to India and Central Asia. Miniature Art in India thrived under the Mughal Empire and gave rise to the Mughal style of painting, which combined religion, culture and tradition as their themes. Indian miniature paintings are extremely intricate and detail oriented, and provokes you to think about the nature, character and personality of the muse or setting, thereby relaying a story about a particular person, place or moment in time

By their very nature then, Indian Miniature paintings are not only aesthetically pleasing, but serve to act as archives, preserving history within its delicate brush strokes. Thus, this photo series is an attempt to reimagine how an artist of the Mughal Court might choose to depict the Coronavirus pandemic, had it existed during their time

In creating this series, we asked ourselves - how would the artist choose to communicate this exceptionally surreal moment in history? We identified that there are certain objects such as the disposable hand gloves, hand sanitiser and mask that would likely be a prominent feature of the paintings, since these have all clearly defined our society during Covid-19. Therefore, such a painting, if it was commissioned during the time of the Mughal Empire, would aid in providing the people of the future, an artistic commentary of the world during a global pandemic

A final nod to authenticate this style of painting is the Urdu caption detail which reads 'Lockdown 2020'