I Wanna Hug You

In the age of Covid-19, everything has been exacerbated and brought to the surface, the veil of comfort taken down, from larger systems to smaller moments in how families, friends and individuals operated. It has allowed for a period of deep reflection and questioning of how we used to operate, and also allowed for a visioning and commitment to a different future. It has created a global shift, where government, organizations, institutions, neighborhoods, families; everyone has had to evolve and adapt to a new social contract, a new way of existing.

Artist Dave Eassa asks the viewer to consider:

What are you leaving behind, what is coming with you? What do you miss the most? Leave a drawing, leave some writing, pass along something and hang it on the wall.

I Wanna Hug You provided an Covid safe space to individually contemplate these questions, while remembering that we are not alone by seeing the larger collaborative vision that is created from over the duration of the exhibition. The gallery was filled with visitor responses; drawings and writings answering the questions posed to them upon entering, the rollercoaster of Covid emotions providing commonality and kinship between us all. 

I Wanna Hug You was originally installed in The Shed Space, an artist run gallery space in Baltimore, MD. In May of 2021, it was installed in Founder’s Park, as part of a two year exhibition of public sculpture in downtown Johnson City, Tennessee.