Teague McDaniel

Story forthcoming

Sitting With It invites participants to take a mask off of a collaged pillar. Adorned with short stanzas and dye sublimation college–each of the first 100 masks are like seeds sharing glimpses of Merz and McDaniel’s experiences with Long COVID. Merz produced the written word component, which can be found in full form in the written booklet for this exhibition.

Merz combines lush photographs that feature profound and beautiful aspects within everyday experiences. Merz took these images during a time of near complete isolation in lockdown. This is also a period of time where the artist entered a three year Buddhist retreat, which began when he became homebound due to illness related to severe Long COVID. Merz’ writing is intentionally fragmented and can be seen as a direct representation of brain fog and the variety of experiences of Long COVID.

Relatable, ordinary, and profound, the written word component includes quotes like “when I stress I flare.” These quotes can also be seen as a window into their production process, which was simplified in order to reduce the potential for and severity of flares related to their ongoing experiences of Long COVID.

McDaniel utilizes abstracted imagery taken from video stills of footage they shot and edited using electric signals in an analog video process at Signal Culture to illustrate the impermanent nature of life. This imagery is a queered abstraction relating to their experiences with loss, grief, death, separation, liberation, and acceptance related to Long COVID. He is interested in exploring the intersections of chronic illness, people in the LGBTQ2IA+ umbrella, and Buddhist practices.