Jack Shergalis

Screening, Ink and Photoshop, October 6, 2020, 11” x 17″

Screening​ relates to how, on a smaller timeline, people are spending more time indoors in front of screens interacting with the world digitally, but also how on a larger timeline this was the case before and will be after coronavirus. For the first time in history a person’s life can be summarized as a series of experiences in relation to a screen, from beginning to end, and the quarantine has only expedited and highlighted this. The comic is a portrait of my character Frances and her relationship with screens. It projects out from the current moment as a reminder that even though the present can feel dire, it’s still a part of an ongoing continuum. Our interfacing with technology, as well as the new challenges that we face environmentally, biologically, politically and otherwise, are the beginning of a drastically new way of life, one that is unique to the rest of our history, yet inexorably linked to it. The items around Frances and the screen tell the story of her life outside the digital realm, they serve as reminders that although we face new challenges and new experiences, we are still connected to the past through daily ritual