Quarantine Chronicles: Colourful Guidelines
© Mathery
By Lamia Baladi
‘Wash your hands’; ‘Don’t touch your face’; ‘Avoid crowded places’. Since the beginning of the quarantine, social distancing guidelines have been countlessly repeated so as to become mechanical daily habits, ingrained in our brains. Dry cracks on our skins are appearing as a result of this hand-washing obsession. While these instructions are crucial to humanity’s safety and survival, they tend to be dreary. But Brooklyn-based artist duo Mathery is here to bring lightness, colours and fun to an otherwise weighty situation.
Born and raised in Italy, Erika Zorzi and Matteo Sangalli are partners in work and in life. They met at university in Milan where they started collaborating and have been living in New York for the past four years, working as directors in design and photography. The duo started self-quarantining in early March, after witnessing the seriousness of the outbreak in Italy from their relatives and friends. New York City being a late bloomer in foreseeing the urgency of the situation, they took it upon themselves to spread information. Using colourful visual language combined with humour, Erika and Matteo channelled their creativity to create uplifting guidelines. From the comfort of their own home in Brooklyn, the duo respects social distancing and shoots still lives using seamless backdrops from previous projects and personal objects as props. And they never fail to put a smile on people’s faces:
Starting with the basics, wash your hands often, and do so while singing ‘Like a Virgin by Madonna’.
© Mathery
We’ve all experienced and witnessed the ‘panic-buying’ phase - and in particular toilet paper becoming a rare commodity. Zorzi and Sangalli interpret the shortage of toilet paper with play and humour, by substituting it with a sock.
© Mathery
Being in lockdown generated all kinds of new activities for people. But cooking has specifically become a go-to. While most of us have previously rarely set foot in the kitchen, everyone is suddenly turning into chefs. This has been sharply coined ‘procrastibaking’. Mathery created cookbooks with brilliant advice:
or the ones who have always been complaining about “not having enough time to cook at home”: this quarantine is for you! Stay home, don’t panic and Master the art of (VERY) slow cooking or try 12 hour long recipes, you have so much free time you can actually start preparing dinner right after breakfast! © Mathery
Yet, spending most of our time in the kitchen is a serious impediment to our summer bodies. And Mathery is here to encourage us to workout in our homes and the silver lining of it is doing it naked!
‘Gyms and Fitness Clubs have finally closed, practicing workouts or any sport in group is banned so let’s WORKOUT FROM HOME! Look at the BRIGHT SIDE, you can do it freely naked.’ © Mathery
Last but not least, they created fictional merchandise and souvenirs to remember this quarantine spent at home: from a sponge key-chain to postcards from our favorite place :the kitchen, these everyday objects and spaces will be cherished in our mind for a long time.
© Mathery
‘This ongoing quarantine will never be forgotten. Here’s a little collection of souvenirs to cherish once this will be finally over.’ © Mathery
Not only do these bright, informative and humorous visual guidelines serve to lift people’s spirits, they have also helped Zorzi and Sagnelli in bolstering their creativity, and thus keep their sanity.
You can visit their work on their instagram page (@matherystudio)
