FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 4, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 41
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Photos courtesy of GreenPoint Innovations
Artist completes massive
memorial for COVID-19 victims in
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
An extraordinary memorial to COVID-19 victims
will be dedicated in the coming days at Flushing
Meadows Corona Park, just east of the neighborhoods
of Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights that
represented the epicenter of the pandemic as it peaked
in Queens.
As the nationwide death count passed 100,000 victims
this week, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, one of the
world’s most prominent contemporary artists, was
putting the fi nishing touches on a 20,000-squarefoot
ground mural in the parking lot adjacent to
the Queens Museum alongside the New York State
Pavilion.
Th e eyes of the portrait are based upon one of the
fi rst minority doctors who died from COVID-19. Dr.
Ydelfonso Decoo was 70 years old and ready to retire
when he joined the frontlines in the battle against
the coronavirus outbreak as part of the SOMOS
Community Care network in New York City that is
comprised mainly of immigrant Latino and Chinese
doctors treating those in marginalized communities.
Rodriguez-Girada went through hundreds of pictures
of health care workers before selecting Dr.
Decoo, but the project is not just about him.
The art installation pays tribute
to all victims of COVID-19,
and the healthcare workers and
first responders who put their
own lives on the line caring
for them.
The Cuban-American artist
cleared four Home Depots of the
paint he used on the project. The
NYC Parks Department, the Queens
Museum, SOMOS and Make the Road New
York all played crucial roles in the memorial’s
creation.
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