So heartwarming to have my video/artslideshow posted on the Global Health Diaries- “Across the whole world, social culture as we know it is changing, perhaps forever, and very fast. The handshake that we took for granted as a mark of trust and friendship is no longer. Coronavirus has severed our skin contact, our comfort zone, and our culture. My charcoal sketches and slideshow are in response.”
Tendai Machingaidze writes:
As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds across the globe, the amalgamation of the arts and global health is becoming increasingly apparent. Recent examples include the One World Together at Home concert that raised over a hundred million dollars for the World Health Organization; #SolidarityShows: Love in the Time of Coronavirus co-curated by Christopher Bailey (WHO) and Lisa Russell (Create2030); ARTS x SDGs Online Festival; and Pictures for Elmhurst, to name but a few. Whether the goal is fundraising for frontline workers, keeping people sane through entertainment, building communities in a time of social distancing, or unraveling the complex emotions that that world is grappling to understand, global and grassroots artists around the world are proving themselves to be an integral part of healthcare and wellbeing.
As our modes of existence are forced to change, we as humanity need to acknowledge our grief over what we have lost, and find inspiration and hope for the future. Contemporary artists such as Lin Barrie from Zimbabwe are helping many do just that through their work. Recently, I was particularly struck by Lin’s series of sketches centered around the theme “to touch….or not to touch.”
Lin writes: “Across the whole world, social culture as we know it is changing, perhaps forever, and very fast. The handshake that we took for granted as a mark of trust and friendship is no longer. Coronavirus has severed our skin contact, our comfort zone, and our culture. My charcoal sketches and slideshow are in response.”
As I gaze at Lin’s sketches, I see feelings that I could not put into words displayed before my eyes. I understand the discomfort brewing in my chest over the past weeks. I can make sense of the awkwardness I feel when I meet people and I have to resist my instincts and fight my muscle memory to reach out and touch. I am homesick for a handshake.
As my emotions become tangible, I can mourn, and begin to heal.
As each nation mobilizes its communities to combat COVID-19, a virus that knows no borders, the global community unites in solidarity. Our new series, titled “In the World With COVID-19,” features reflective perspectives on the ways in which the pandemic is impacting our global health family in our international partner sites in nine countries around the world. We hope that by reading these stories, we can learn from each other and feel connected as one global community.
To help our global health family stay informed and up-to-date, we have launched a concise, practical, and trustworthy COVID-19 resources center.
As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds across the globe, the amalgamation of the arts and global health is becoming increasingly apparent. Recent examples include the One World Together at Home concert that raised over a hundred million dollars for the World Health Organization; #SolidarityShows:…
Lin Barrie
The Save Valley Conservancy stretches along the upper reaches of the great Save River in the south east of Zimbabwe. The Gonarezhou National Park laps against the southern banks of the Save River and between these two nestles the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve. These three celebrated wildlife areas form part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, (GLTFCA)- a unique wilderness jewel which is home to the “Big Five” (endangered Black and White rhinos, elephants, buffalo, lion, leopard) and the ”Little Six” (Klipspringer, Suni, Duiker, Steenbok, Sharpe's Grysbok and Oribi). Endangered African wild dogs, Cheetah, Brown hyena, Bat-eared foxes and a host of special birds and plants contribute to the immense variety of this ecosystem. Communities around the GLTFCA contribute to innovative partnerships with National Parks and the private sector, forming a sound base on which to manage social, economic and environmental issues.
This is home to artist and writer Lin Barrie and her life partner, conservationist Clive Stockil.
Expressing her hopes, fears and love for this special ecosystem with oil paints on canvas, Lin Barrie believes that the essence of a landscape, person or animal, can only truly be captured by direct observation.
Lin Barrie states: “Through my art, and my writing, I feel an intimate connection with the natural world, and from my extensive field sketches of wild animals, people and landscapes, I create larger works on canvas.
Lin's work is in various public and private collections in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Australia, England, Canada, Sweden and the United States of America. She is represented by galleries in South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, Kenya and Florida, USA.
Tendai Machingaidze, MD 
wine and wild dogs 
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