China Virus Mask

I decided to make this mask when I saw Donald Trump making a speech about COVID-19 and a camera picked up the typed notes for his speech and you could see that Trump had crossed out COVID-19 and hand written “China Virus”. He used this, Wuhan Flu and other racist terms in a vain attempt to shift the blame for his disastrous response to the pandemic.

I also wanted to show the complete disconnect between the US and China through embroidery styles. The “down home” cross stitch popular in America contrasts with the bling of gold thread so commonly used on Chinese embroidery.

I first exhibited this mask in the Museum of Democracy in Adelaide’s online ‘Stitch and Resist’ exhibition in 2020 and have now offered to donate it to the National Museum of Australia’s COVID-19 collections.