Melissa McClung

These collages emerged on quarantine nights while listening to Agatha Christie murder mysteries (as a welcome break from the hair-raising 24-hour news cycle!). Usually I make films, so it was fun to unwind with a stack of magazines and a pot of glue. The resulting images have a certain anxiety and retro-futuristic surrealism that speaks to this strange pandemic moment.

During this surreal moment in history, every day comes with a new emotion and a new narrative. If my job as an artist is to reflect the world in real time, it seems only fitting to “sketch” days as they come and go. My Video Sketchbook is a diary of four months in quarantine, filtered through my imagination via original footage and animations, archival footage, and stock images. In each entry, I hold moments in my hand and examine them before they shape-shift and flutter away.

Melissa McClung is based in Hadley MA