Mona Chalabi 1 Culturunners

Mona Chalabi

Artist & Data Editor - The Guardian US

Mona Chalabi is a New York-based data journalist and illustrator. Her visualizations shed light on otherwise faceless statistics, making her a popular commentator on contemporary politics. Taking statistical reports that highlight various global inequalities – such as the political crisis in Venezuela, or how minorities are more affected by air pollution in the United States – she visualises data through poignant illustrations. Mona’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, New York Magazine, The Guardian and many more. She has written for radio and TV including Netflix (The Fix), BBC (Is Britain Racist?, Radio 4 and The Frankie Boyle show), NPR and National Geographic (Star Talk). She is also an illustrator whose work has been commended by the Royal Statistical Society. Her work has been exhibited at several galleries including the Tate, The Design Museum and the House of Illustration. Lastly, she’s a producer and presenter. She’s one half of the team that created the Emmy-nominated video series Vagina Dispatches. And she presented and produced the audio experiment Strange Bird. Before she became a journalist, Mona worked with large data sets in jobs at the Bank of England, Transparency International and the International Organization for Migration. She studied International Relations in Paris and Arabic in Jordan. Mona was born and raised in London.

@monachalabi
monachalabi.com


Artworks

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Who are you here to See? In this work, Chalabi was influenced by a 2014 report by Tate Galleries, stating that only fifteen per cent of artists in their collection are women. She further investigated these findings by calculating what the breakdown of identities was in a US museum collection of 100 artists. Her analysis showed a similarly shocking disparity: seventy-five white would dominate. "88% of all the artists in major US museums are men. 86% of all the artists in major US museums are white. That doesn't remotely reflect the population."

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

Source: Research by the University of Sydney. Professor Chris Dickman issued this statement: "The figure includes mammals, birds and reptiles and does not include insects, bats and frogs. the True loss of animal life is likely to be much higher than 480 million."

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

This is all about incubation periods (the time it takes between you getting infected and you showing symptoms). This study provides some of the best data we have so far on incubation of COVID-19. The doctors found that 99.9% of people who develop symptoms, do so within 14 days. BUT! We know that some people are asymptomatic, meaning they never show any signs of having the illness (hello, Idris Elba). Estimates for this vary but one study of 2,539 cases in Italy found that 10% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 didn’t show any symptoms at all. So you could be sick and not even know it which is why social distancing is so important right now. Will post links to the studies in my stories now! (Made this in colorblind safe colors)

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

America is not America I drew this sketch a year ago for the 4th of July 2017. The numbers have barely changed since then but it’s been a year of relentless attacks on the rights of immigrants, people of color and women so I’m sharing it again. America isn’t America without the 13.2% of us that are immigrant, the 39.3% that aren’t white and the 50.8% that are female. Source: US Census Bureau 2017

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

The racial pay gap is *worse* today than it was in 1979. For every $1 a black American earns, a white American now earns $1.36 - it used to be $1.22. Source: Economic Policy Institute, 2016

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

Endangered Species on a Train Some species are so close to extinction, that every remaining member can fit on a New York subway car (if they squeeze). Source: IUCN Red List, 2018

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

Here’s a little boardgame - stay here to get your paycheck as a mum or swipe left to get it as a dad. Then follow the paths all the way down. By the time I got to the bottom, I wanted a hysterectomy. Or better yet, to fight for legislation that will mean mums (especially unmarried mums and women of color) aren’t shortchanged. Money is power, and daddies get a lot of it. Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual averages for 2017

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

If you think you might be sick and you can stay at home, then STAY THE FUCK AT HOME.

Illustration: Mona Chalabi

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