Morgan Wedderspoon
“So this is why you play chess with Death.” (2020)
My work has been about paying attention—or perhaps about the act of noticing, about attention being captured by things. It has been about responding to crises in multiple and contradictory ways—about responding, but also reacting, about impulse but also hesitation. It has been about confronting denialism within ourselves and others. It has been about imagining not-yet-experienced overlapping crises, about imminent or already-happening scenarios and their conditions for possibility.
In this moment of pause, it’s only made sense for me to try to pause, too.
At the beginning of quarantine here in so-called Edmonton, I followed morbid curiosity. I streamed The Seventh Seal and a lecture series about the Black Death’s horrible journey in the 14th century. I read Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, a novel about civilizational collapse, with my newly formed book club as the meaning of the word “pandemic” settled in.
I wrapped up teaching my last course at the University of Alberta through “remote delivery” as I worried that our ability to adapt to the situation might later be exploited. I read aloud with strangers in another book club, discussing a collection of essays on anarchism, technology and a more ecological existence. I didn’t feel much like making art. Despite my efforts at reading, my ability to recall the text and our discussions has been weak. Like many others, I’ve felt frazzled.
I finished household projects I’d been putting off while I sat with my anxiety. I worked from home because I could, I was lucky, while my mother worked full time in the NICU wearing one flimsy mask all day in an Ontario hospital. I let my sourdough starter die from neglect as I devoured articles circulated by friends and shared some of my own, including a regrettable video about sanitizing your groceries from a man dressed in scrubs.
Fast forward to July 1st—so much has happened in the past 109 days. Tensions are running high as we collectively reflect on our struggles to properly care for one another through such disturbing times—which are ongoing. Yes, our fatigue with ongoing and overlapping crises is itself traumatic, as we fall back into old patterns in defiance of reality.
It feels like an inflection point. Resisting these patterns will require resources many of us may feel low on, so the conditions for regeneration are more vital than ever to identify, protect, and make abundant for all.
Priest/Death: “You are uneasy.”
Block: “Death visited me this morning. We are playing chess. This respite enables me to perform a vital errand.”
Priest/Death: “What errand?”
Block: “My whole life has been coming and going and talking without point or consequence. It has been nothing. I say it without bitterness or self-reproach, for I know that almost all men's lives are made up just like that. But I want to use my respite for one meaningful deed.”
Priest/Death: “Ah. So this is why you play chess with Death.”
(Dialogue from The Seventh Seal)
Image Descriptions & Additional Information
1) GOOD GRIEF. Trace monotype, approx. 4x4", 2020.
2) Pandemic walks - clear disposable glove. Photograph, 05/28/2020.
3) Pandemic walks - blue disposable mask. Photograph, 05/14/2020.
4) Pandemic walks - dustpan. Photograph, 05/13/2020.
5) Pandemic walks - out of an abundance of caution. Photograph, 05/13/2020.
6) slow, cyanotype and trace monotype, edition of 6, 8x10", 2020.
7) Pandemic walks - my shadow on a dandelion field. Photograph, 05/27/2020.
Morgan Wedderspoon (she/her) is an artist working in print media and found-object sculpture, including artist books and print-based installations. Her ongoing creative research explores ecology, poetry, and speculative thought, often sampling from written texts and an array of objects collected from the ground. She is a BFA graduate of Queen’s University (2009) and holds an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Alberta (2016). Recent exhibition sites include the Mitchell Art Gallery (Edmonton), Peter Robertson Gallery (Edmonton), Open Studio (Toronto), Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts (Poland), Novosibirsk State Art Museum (Russia), Taoxichuan Art Museum (China), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art (Poland), Petrocultures 2018 Conference (Scotland) and SNAP Gallery (Edmonton). She is a recipient of the Special Award of the Rector of the Fine Arts Academy in Katowice (International Print Triennial Society, Krakòw, Poland) and a Research and Creation Grant (Canada Council for the Arts) for a collaborative project with Angela Snieder.