'I ate my Covid-19 everyday', says Hackney man turned virus crafter
Lorenzo Saa made 100 "Covids" during lockdown. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
A Hackney man spent 100 days of lockdown making “a Covid” each day, out of local fruits, vegetables and items lying around the house.
Lorenzo Saa said his art project helped “demystify” the terrible virus, giving him a chance to channel his artistic expression while stuck in the house.
The “Covids”, as Lorenzo calls them, proved popular, with articles and videos reaching across the globe.
He told the Gazette: “Friends of mine in Peru called me and said: 'I just saw you in the news'. I was like, that’s a weird way to get well known.
“Then I started getting people saying: ‘I am making them too’."
The Stoke Newington resident said it all started when he was watching TV and got worried after seeing images of the virus.
Lorenzo created Covids from locally supplied fruits, vegetables and whatever else he could find lying around the house. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
“Then I had these Cacti," he said.
"They are called Mother In Law Cushion - basically its like a cacti that is round and it is almost like a pillow - and I had some felt balls that I was using for something else.
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“I went and put the felt balls on the cacti [and] it literally looked like Covid-19. I was like: ‘That is Covid-19’.”
Lorenzo continued: “So I took a picture of it and all of a sudden Covid-19 didn’t look that scary.”
Lorenzo Saa sits at his Covid work station at his home in Hackney. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
He would continue making his “Covids” for 100 days and, inspired by his job in sustainability, thought the project could be used to point towards a more "sustainable world that might actually not create Covid-19 again.”
He put rules in place for the project which included that all the homemade viruses must be made from fruits and vegetables bought by local suppliers, primarily his local shop on Stoke Newington Church Street, or things found in his house or bought from charity shops.
Recently Lorenzo was shocked to learn one of the photos from his Covid art project had made it into a Brazilian street art museum in Sao Paolo, as one of 200 pictures in the world representing the pandemic. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
“It couldn’t have an impact and the great thing I could say everyday is that I ate my Covid-19, in either a soup or a veggie [meal] or a salad,” Lorenzo added.
He also used his Covid-themed artworks to express social messages, having created a Black Lives Matter Covid made with black beans and others critical of Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro and former US president Donald Trump.
Find out more at www.instagram.com/covid19replicas and www.instagram.com/uandwhat/
This "Covid" was made to look like the flag of Brazil, and subverts the original motto of "Ordem e Progresso" (Order and Progress. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
This potato "Covid" comments on President Trumps proposal to treat Covid with bleach. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
A collage of all one hundred "Covids" called Mutations. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
The art works are meant to "demystify" coronavirus and spread messages about sustainability. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
A "Covid" created with a lychee and household screws. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
A Black Lives Matter "Covid" made from black beans and various household items. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
Lorenzo Saa made 100 "Covids" during lockdown. - Credit: Lorenzo Saa
