CoVIDA | Andrea Arroyo

In August 2020, the Morris-Jumel Mansion invited Andrea Arroyo to create a project in response to the COVID crisis. Arroyo saw this as an opportunity to resist the normalization of COVID statistics by creating a public space for reflection, connection, and grief. She chose a title combining “COVID” with the Spanish word for life, “vida.”

Arroyo took inspiration from global commemorative practices, including Day of the Dead altars, wish trees, prayer flags, and memorial ribbons. She invited participants to submit names of loved ones lost to COVID. Inscribing ribbons with these names became, for Arroyo, a meditative and spiritual practice. In addition to these ribbons, her project integrates winged figures, cempasúchitl flowers, and papel picado. Arroyo initially unveiled CoVIDA at the Morris-Jumel Mansion on November 1st, 2020, on Día de Muertos. Commemorating COVID features elements of the original mural-memorial, including ribbons and angel figures created by Arroyo.