The new crazy normal

The new crazy normal
Photography
50 cm x 67,5 cm

This artwork comments on the tough conditions of being a learner and teacher in peri-urban and rural spaces. The overcrowded classrooms, under delivery of basic services and poor infrastructure at these schools make it nearly impossible for teachers to deliver quality education and high success rates. To create this artwork, the artist took a photograph from one of his classrooms where disposable face masks had been reused as chalkboard dusters. This poetic visual captures the literal and symbolic suffocation experienced by educators and learners because of Covid-19.

On the one hand, the education of learners from the peri-urban and rural schools, who are mostly black, was devastated because learners had no access to data and limited technology that could help them stay connected with their educators. And on the other hand, there was an increase in the number of educators who lost their lives due to Covid-19.