Figures

Dirty, somewhat sinister yellows and oranges appear again. Traditionally clad, swaddled figures appear on these pages including small, almost Kewpie (the company that created huge eyed dolls) an angel, a tam o’shanter clad Scot in traditional dress, dancing the Highland fling. Kewpie still makes caricature dolls that became very popular from the early 20thC.

Endless warnings quickly appeared about the importance of hand washing. Why only now?

As a child I well remember government issue images, hung beside the loo, of children, curled up, clutching at their painful bellies, with stark, censorious warnings for us on them to WASH OUR HANDS... Somehow in our complacency, this message has been washed away.

Social distancing protocol. We each became two metres islands.

The Ace of Spades may have high value in the pack, but is also known as the Death card.

On 24th April 2020 during a national public briefing, the US President Donald Trump made a suggestion that injecting disinfectant into the human body might be a way to ‘cleanse’ it of the virus. Here, the British antiseptic Dettol with its’ trademark symbol of a rapier or thin sword representing victory over germs is adopted to spread Trump’s message.

From Thursday eve 26th March 2020 at 8pm, only three days after Lockdown came into force, the nation stood on their doorsteps at the same time each week to ‘Clap for the Carers’ as a sign of gratitude to all those carers in and beyond the NHS in the frontline of the virus. It became very politicised and polarising as scandal and shortages became ever more apparent.