Publisher: Architectural Association Publications, Editor: Brendan Cormier, ISBN: 9781919624518, Format: Softcover, 150 x 215 mm, 360pp
During the Covid-19 pandemic, a host of everyday objects suddenly became charged with new urgency. Toilet paper became a symbol of public panic, convention centres became hospitals, parks became contested public commodities.
Initiated by curator Brendan Cormier in early April 2020, Pandemic Objects was first an editorial project on the Victoria and Albert Museum blog, a way to capture and ‘collect’ these shifts in use and meaning. Four years on, the blog has been edited and curated into a book in a fruitful collaboration between the V&A and AA Publications.
The resulting publication is considered an object in itself, a tangible archive of this extraordinary time and a way to recall and connect with the seismic shifts and subtle lessons of the pandemic.