Coronavirus in the form of a glass sculpture, 2020

Bristol artist Luke Jerram uses the technique of glass microbiology to sculpt Coronavirus( COVID-19) for a tribute to medical researchers and health officers working across the globe. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, and creativity in general, besides sharing the commonality of characteristic set C, has paved the way for collective efforts led by the people from all walks of life to contain the further spread of the virus. In a similar vein, British artist Luke Jerram’s latest glass sculpture titled Coronavirus (COVID-19) runs 23 cm in diameter, which makes it approximately two million times larger than the actual size of the novel coronavirus. In a tribute to global health research teams and medical doctors who are working round the clock to combat the pandemic, the glass sculpture was commissioned by the Duke University School of Engineering in the United States eight weeks before the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic crisis. Jerram describes the glass sculpture saying, “This artwork is a tribute to the scientists and medical teams who are working collaboratively across the world to try to slow the spread of the virus. It is vital we attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus by working together globally, so our health services can manage this pandemic. Helping to communicate the form of the virus to the public, the artwork has been created as an alternative representation to the artificially coloured imagery received through the media. In fact, viruses have no colour as they are smaller than the wavelength of light”. Luke and his glassblowing team have made several other sculptures of viruses from swine flu and Ebola to smallpox and HIV in the past. The Glass Microbiology sculptures are in museum collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum, NYC; Wellcome Collection, London and the Museum of Glass, Shanghai.