madhushree

overwhelmed by work

Illustrator | Sep 2021

The theme of the first issue of The Rosa was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three overlapping boxes. Some overlaps have abstract doodles and scribbles. There are also close-ups of a person's face, neck, leg and arm in some of the overlaps. The caption reads: "Too many deadlines, nowhere to hide..."
A person is sitting in their chair in front of their PC. They look shocked as they are about to fall back from their chair as a whirlwind of papers is blown towards them through the computer screen. The caption is a dialogue emanating through the computer: "Aren't you at home all day anyway?"

During the first lock-down imposed due to pandemic restrictions, we were socially distant and found many barriers and boundaries between us, loved ones and our communities at large. But we also found some of these boundaries to be erased–particularly the ones between our professional and personal spaces.

With these illustrations, I wanted to explore this erasure, and the suffocation it made us feel through ruthless deadlines, meetings, and new platforms–contributing to overall fatigue.

A person is trying to float out of screens that look like meeting app and chat screenshots. The caption says: "Perpetually stuck in meetings."