The artists behind NZ’s vaccine drive
As the Government releases its next wave of public health messages around its Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, Kiwis are receiving art – along with immunisation information – in their mailboxes and in their local shopping malls.
The artworks illustrating messages of hope, freedom and life after the virus are appearing on pamphlets and billboards, flanked by the Covid-19 response team’s signature black and yellow colours.
‘‘The idea was to demonstrate what we can all have – that freedom of being together again once you’re vaccinated,’’ said Wellington-based artist Ruby Jones, who decided to illustrate the country’s national vaccination letter-drop brochure with a picture of children playing in a park, with adults watching them.
Jones, who illustrated the cover of Time Magazine after the Christchurch terror attacks, was contacted about a month ago and said she was immediately drawn to the idea of helping out with the vaccination campaign.
Another of Jones’ illustrations, one depicting a pair of people sitting on a globe with Aotearoa at the Earth’s centre, has also been used in national newspaper advertisements.
‘‘That desire to be together again – vaccination is almost a door to that,’’ she said.
Jem Yoshioka, another Wellington-based illustrator, was separately contacted and commissioned to create art to go alongside the Government’s vaccination campaign.
Her designs have been featured on digital billboards across the country, including in Lower Hutt’s Queensgate mall and in Auckland.
‘‘It’s pretty crazy, just in terms of the fact it’s in people’s everyday lives,’’ Yoshioka said of people seeing her art work.
Her work brief – like Jones’ – was to create art that illustrated what people would be looking forward to after being vaccinated. She decided to focus on people getting to spend time with one another: at weddings, getting to share meals, seeing grandparents. Illustration as an artistic
medium can get to the heart of a message in ways a photo or other image cannot capture, Yoshioka said. ‘‘There’s a real sense of light and warmth and hope that the vaccine really represents for people. It’s the calm after the storm – that’s really what I’ve tried to capture,’’ she said.
She and Jones both said it was a bit strange to think of the amount of public exposure their art was receiving.
Jones said illustration was particularly effective in being able to portray ideas which can be challenging in a positive way. ‘‘I’m really proud of [my work] – it’s for something [the vaccine] I feel like we should all get.’’