The PPE-19 PROJECT

PPE or Personal Protective Equipment is specialist equipment health workers wear to protect themselves from such viruses as Ebola, the Marburg virus and COVID-19.

The project and this body of work were produced in the early stages of the pandemic and the lockdown. At this time Images of medical staff in hazmat suits inundated the media, making many of us feel anxious and scared. This situation sparked a global PPE face mask shortage, due to a need by health services and people outside of the medical profession.

Humans have been wearing masks for a millennium, they are truly ingrained in our primal psyche and are deeply rooted in folklore and our contemporary culture. Historical masks rituals occur throughout the world and seem to share numerous characteristics.

Masks have been worn for many different purposes including religious ceremonies, celebrations, and warfare. Conveying spiritual presences in initiation rituals or burial services. Some masks represent the spirits of deceased ancestors, while others are worn by secret societies.

During the Bubonic plague epidemic that swept through Europe. Plague doctors who treated the infected wore Personal Protective Equipment to protect them from infections. This menacing suit typically consisted of animal-like masks.

The images of the PPE-19 project are of figures wearing hazmat suits, cabbage masks and homemade and found objects, as masks for Personal Protective Equipment. Historically cabbages were used as medicine for problems such as chest infections and facilitated with breathing difficulties.

The flowers in the background of some of these images are a historical homage to the Plague Doctors. This is because the Bubonic physician’s plague masks would have been filled with dried flowers and laudanum. Which was intended to protect them from the bubonic plague.

The PPE-19 project delves into the past and the present of PPE masks, from the bubonic plague costumes to the modern-day hazmat masks. This work was produced in the pandemic lockdown and was, all created in the limitations of my apartment.