Face Shield (COVID-19)
date: label: date decorated
content: April-May 2021
label: used
content: May 2021
name: label: maker
content: Tures, Pamela
label: maker
content: 3M Company
notes: label: Description
content: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 outbreak had become a pandemic. In the wake of this declaration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as state and local health departments did not recommend the wearing of face masks. However, on April 3, 2020, the CDC reversed course and recommended that Americans wear face masks when they were in public spaces and unable to maintain a social distance of 6 feet or more.
label: Description
content: Because access to face masks (N95s in particular) became extremely limited following this announcement, many people made their own. Some of these objects were hastily and poorly made but as the pandemic continued, mask makers, both those who made masks for their own use and those who sold them, began to make increasingly elaborate and unique masks. Although cloth masks remained the most widely used type of mask, plastic shields were also sold and used. Like cloth masks, some plastic shields were decorated to reflect the wearer’s personality. Pamela Mossinghoff Tures, a glass artist in Virginia, designed, made, and wore this “Fish Tank” plastic shield mask in May of 2021.
label: Description
content: Tures lives in a rural area where she maintains a glass studio. In 2021, when some COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and travel became possible, she was invited to attend the Automotive Industry’s SuperConference on Amelia Island Florida in May 2021; this included a huge trade show. Although Florida was “open” and mask wearing had become increasingly less common in the state, Tures’ corporate office still required face coverings and the conference organizers did distribute face masks with the conference logo.
label: Description
content: To stoke excitement about the conference, conference organizers issued a call before the conference for a face shield decorating contest. Tures had about 6 weeks to prepare her piece which uses multiple art mediums on a standard plastic face shield. Paint, vitrigraph pulled murine, fused dichroic and layered colored glass, frozen frit fused glass, bisque fired clay, and a wood fishing pole decorate the shield. Wire and various glues and epoxies are used to fasten these objects to the plastic shield. With the exception of the shield itself, Tures made each object on the shield. Tures notes that she “proudly wore the shield during the trade show and contest” where she won the grand prize among approximately a hundred other entries.
label: Description
content: Tures’ design played with the conference location (a beach-front resort hotel in Florida). Her mask used a fish tank theme, one which she felt reflected the feeling of being locked down. The design is intentionally deceptive, appearing at first to be a peaceful tropical underwater scene. But, as she explains, the underwater scene also reflects the sense of confinement and being in a controlled environment. The three fish represented how Americans were forced to remain in small groups or with just family members. The bright colors on the angel fish were intended to illustrate how, despite the dark situation, one could still find humor and light. The tall coral growing wildly represented the lack of control many felt over their lives. The boat, with a lone barefoot fisherman, illustrates the vulnerability so many experienced during the pandemic; as Tures notes the fisherman “is sleeping off the isolation as his empty fishing line floats in the wind.” The two flying sea gulls illustrate the freedom that was lost during the pandemic while the sunset was intended to evoke hope for better days.
label: Description
content: Although artists and crafters took a range of different approaches to mask making, Tures’ work illustrates the ways in which masks could incorporate humor along with a more serious assessment of the impact the pandemic had on Americans. Ture’s mask also provides insight into Americans’ complex feelings about masks and mask-wearing. Often the subject of intense and bitter debates, masks could also be a focal point for humor. Finally, Tures’ participating in a mask-wearing contest in Florida, a state in which mask-wearing became extremely controversial during the spring and summer of 2021, demonstrates how individuals and organizations highlighted and emphasized mask-wearing, even in states whose governors dismissed mask wearing.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place decorated
content: United States: Virginia
label: associated place
content: United States: Florida, Amelia Island
label: worn
content: United States: Florida, Amelia Island
topic: label: used
content: COVID-19 (Disease)
label: used
content: Medical instruments and apparatus
label: related event
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Pamela Mossinghoff Tures
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0019.01
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0019.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0019
objectType: label: Object Name
content: face shield
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic; glass; wire; clay; wood; paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 32 cm x 24 cm x 32 cm; 12 19/32 in x 9 7/16 in x 12 19/32 in