Drawing to a Close

Commission by Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Growing up before screens, I accidentally learned something about boredom, how to be alone. Consequently, I approached the 2020 lockdown by taking up and practicing a new skill: drawing. In the face of these destructive times, the upheaval of normalcy and surrounded by existential anxiety, I chose to become absorbed in something so big that it’s impossible to master in a few weeks or months. I tried to replace one form of the impossible with another, one in which I have more agency. What is more difficult is to be lonely. The days bleed into one another, the afternoons echo. In the end, I think I would rather risk my life than to be isolated. I remember and can still feel the fear of touching or kissing during the peak of the HIV-crisis in the mid/late 90's. Let alone the fear of sex. But I still did it all. There is no substitute for touch. As each day draws to a close, is physical contact negotiable?

DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, EDITOR Pontus Lidberg

COLOURIST Nicolas Perret

MUSIC Angelo Lomelo & Stefan Levin

Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions has been supported by Jody and John Arnhold, Stuart Coleman and Meryl Rosofsky, Antonio Convit and Tim McGraw, Lucy Dobrin, Adam Flatto, Bart Friedman, Bond Koga, Jayne Lipman, Bonnie Maslin, Nina Matis, Eve Mykytyn, Cynthia Hazen Polsky, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Denise Saul, Annalyn Swan, Shelby White and many others. Virtual video design supported by Anupam and Rajika Puri. New music for dance supported by The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.