Strange Apparitions: Amabie Project Part 1

Curated by Johanna Leech and Pollen Studios, invited artists were asked to reimagine the Japanese myth of the Amabie for 2020 pandemic Ireland. The Amabie is a mythical creature in Japanese culture; a long-haired, beaked merman who appears only to prophetize a coming epidemic or an abundant harvest. This artwork takes on the creature in the style of a 16th Century English pamphlet, a medium which acted as a way of cheaply and quickly disseminating information, propaganda in a pre-digital society. The pamphlet wars of the 16th century offer a mirror to the disinformation campaigns of the 21st Century, particularly acute during the Coronavirus pandemic. They also offer an example of crude mass visual communication, with emphasis on legibility over aesthetics.
In this artwork, a group of well dressed men crowd around Armagh Cathedral, the seat of Protestant power in Ireland, pointing at the apparitions in the sky above it. These apparitions are designed to mimic both the coronavirus particle and the great comet of 1577.