Item description
A pen drawing on a white background. At the bottom of the drawing are two tin cans, the one on the left laying on its side to show the empty inside, and the one on the right standing upside down. Connecting the two cans from their respective bottoms is a twine string that tangles together in the middle of the piece. At the top to the left is a text message in a white text bubble and black lettering, reading “Had a using dream last night and after I used I called you to tell you I relapsed”. In response on the right in a black text bubble and white lettering is “Glad I was there” with a heart symbol following the message. Underneath the piece to the right are the words “Moriah LeFebvre”, “Untitled”, “Ink drawing”, and “2020”.
Image | 2024
Works In Rough Going: Recovery Community and Communication During the Pandemic 8
Moriah LeFebvre
The drawings in this series contain words collected and curated from text message exchanges between members of the recovery community during the COVID-19 pandemic. I paired their messages with the images that these words evoked for me when I took the time to sit with them. Text messages are fleeting and digital; they aren’t meant to last. Yet during the pandemic, these pixels on screens became lifelines. I wanted to honor them, to memorialize them and commit them to permanence, deliberately and slowly. I hand drew all of the pieces in this series, sometimes taking the further step of using the sun to expose and create cyanotype prints of the drawn images.
