How to experience this commission
The artwork Phases and the In-Betweens debuted on this page on January 13, 2021, transforming five times throughout the month that followed according to the lunar cycle and culminating in the new moon on February 11. Framing a video that remained constant throughout the month, an animated background changed to highlight different elements and celestial states (the cosmos, fire, heaven, water, and earth) in alignment with the moon’s phase changes. To view an archival version of the work that combines its five iterations into one animated background, scroll down on this web page.
This artwork includes animation, text, and a video with sound.
To unmute the video’s audio track on desktop, adjust the volume meter in the video’s play bar. On your phone, turn the audio on by using the volume keys.
For a transcript of the audio track, a poem by danilo machado, and an audio image description of the animated frame, download the two files below.
PDF transcript of the audio track (opens in a new window)
Audio file with image description (opens in a new window)
An animated GIF that cycles through five different background colors, text, and images. In the center of the background GIF is an embedded looped video shifting through different scenes signifying bureaucratic, medical, and environmental views of the Covid pandemic in New York City along with medical imagery from the Brothers Sick.
The animated gifs show, first: a cosmic background sprinkled with light stars fills the view of the webpage window. Each of the four corners of the window contains a smaller, square animated loop. On the top left corner is a purple-tinted timelapse of an empty twin-sized bed with crumpled sheets. To the left of the bed is another bed, barely visible on the edge of the frame, and to the right of the bed is a nightstand with a glowing lamp. The sheets are drawn in pencil and shift through different amorphous shapes, made and unmade. The Chinese character 地 (dì) fades in on top in bold and yellow, meaning earth or ground. A poem to the right in yellow serif font and reads from left to right, lines arranged like steps: sheets crumpled like paper / new moon / first phase. At the top right corner of the GIF is a new moon in indigo glowing on a yellow background. Below the moon is a poem that cascades down: otherwise / obscured / indirect / look / fire / work / pain / highest. Bottom right corner is an animated dark blue figure on a red background with thin drawn lines of lilac and yellow bursting out of its heart center like fireworks. The bottom left corner is a steadily pulsing circle gradient with red hues on lime background, signifying highest pain. Between the firework figure and the pulsing circle is a poem cascading: outward sparklers / burn the earth / many bright stars. Above the red pulsing gradient and below the bed is a poem that reads: bed / frame / sheets / like / billboard / like / felix / spirit.
Second: a red background and overlay of a mountain range on fire, smoke billowing into the night sky. The GIF fills the view of the webpage window. Each of the four corners of the window contains a smaller animated loop. On the top left corner is a top-down video of a candle, specifically the Yahrzeit candle lit in memory of the dead in Judaism. The Chinese character 火 (huǒ) fades in on top in bold and red, meaning fire. A poem to the right in yellow serif font reads: aflame aflame / wax waxing fire lit / half moon. At the top right corner of the GIF is a waxing first quarter moon in red on an indigo background. Below the moon is a poem that reads: red / split / split / lit / being / all / physical / halfs– the words themselves placed in a column split into halves. Bottom right corner is an indigo blue figure filling up slowly from the hands and feet until completely covered in the red crayon-like texture, then the texture recedes back out of the body in a loop. The bottom left corner is a slowly radiating circle gradient with yellow and green hues on a blue background, signifying lower pain. Between the figure and the radiating circle is a poem that reads: green surround / blue pulsing out / in fully being. Above the yellow radiating gradient and below the candle is a poem that reads: blew / out / bobcat / fire-yellow / center / flicker / blue / out.
Third: a muted overall blue-grey background and an overlay of white clouds moving in an upward right direction on loop. The GIF fills the view of the webpage window. Each of the four corners of the window contains a smaller animated loop. On the top left corner is a yellow, green, and blue scene of a head with a lowered mask revealing the nose and nostrils, the head tilting up gesturing to the sky during a covid test swab process. Each nostril is getting swabbed by a gloved hand of a nurse. The Chinese character 天 (tiān) fades in on top in bold blue, meaning heaven or sky. A poem to the right in blue serif font reads: gloved swab / full glitch / full frame / heaven clouded sky. At the top right corner of the GIF is a full moon glitching in high contrast yellow against a yellow-green background. Below the moon is a poem that reads: all / moon / and / cratered / futures / being / concentric / beings, with the words themselves placed in a column split into halves. Bottom right corner is a white figure emitting six looped glowing shapes in pink white and red outlines of the body that get bigger towards the edges of the frame. The bottom left corner is a slowly radiating circle gradient with a blue circular nucleus and green rings surrounding it against a red background, signifying lowest pain pulsing. Between the figure and the radiating circle is a poem that reads: lowest pain cool center / light red / outward radiant. Above the radiating gradient circle and below the GIF of the nose being swabbed is a poem that reads: virus / testing / (in / case) quick / and / painless / done.
Fourth: a blue background of waves shimmering and shifting downward and inward into one another. The GIF fills the view of the webpage window. Each of the four corners of the window contains a smaller animated loop of four smaller animated gifs. From top left moving clockwise, a purple blue background with a yellow gray sketch of pills and bottles, and a translucent IV dripping liquid one drop at a time overlaid on the drawing. The Chinese character 水 (shuǐ) blinks over the IV in bright yellow. A poem to the right in yellow serif font reads: dripping clear medication / water meditation / half-waning moon. In the top right corner is a blue waning half moon on a red square background. The darker blue navy shadow trembles on the line bisecting the moon. Beneath this reads a poem: blue-purple/ lunar / wane / body / split / red / pain. Below that poem in the bottom right corner is a yellow square with a shivering lavender figure outlining a smaller figure alternating between red and blue. To the left of this reads another poem: lavender limbs feeling / red light pulse / orange throb. And in the bottom left corner is an indigo square with a crimson red, magenta, scarlet, maroon gradient, radiating from the center. Above this gif reads a poem: drip / and / drip / down / and / glowing / out.
And lastly, fifth: a lime green background and overlay of veiny roots slowly growing in the earth. The GIF fills the view of the webpage window. Each of the four corners of the window contains a smaller animated loop. On the top left corner is a timelapse of an empty twin-sized bed with crumpled sheets. The sheets are drawn in pencil and shift through different amorphous shapes. The Chinese character 地 (dì) fades in on top in bold and yellow, meaning earth or ground. A poem to the right in indigo serif font reads: sheets crumpled like paper / new moon / first phase. At the top right corner of the GIF is a new moon in indigo glowing gold on a red background. Below the moon is a poem that reads: otherwise / obscured / indirect / look / fire / work / pain / highest. Bottom right corner is an animated pale blue figure with thin drawn lines of white and red bursting out of its heart center like a firework. The bottom left corner is a steadily pulsing circle gradient with red hues on yellow background, signifying high pain. Between the firework figure and the pulsing circle is a poem that reads: outward sparklers / burn the earth / ground roots grow. Above the red pulsing gradient and below the bed is a poem that reads: bed / frame / sheets / like / billboard / like / felix / spirit.
About this commission
Phases and the In-Betweens is a collaborative digital artwork by Brothers Sick (Ezra and Noah Benus), Yo-Yo Lin, and danilo machado that disrupts the usual vertical, linear flow of The Shed’s website. The combination of an animated frame, a video at its center, and accompanying texts that appear both in the animation and as accessible alt-text proposes new hierarchies, ways of reading, and reflections on the notions and networks of collective care during the COVID-19 pandemic from a disability-artistry perspective. Starting with the new moon on January 13, the work will transform throughout the month according to the phases of the lunar cycle as a way to reflect on (and criticize) the “phases of reopening” as set up by governmental agencies as part of the so-called “return to normal.”
The piece’s video is composed of photos and footage from the Benus’s personal archive documenting their medical files, facilities where ongoing medical treatments take place, and moments from their rare outings in Brooklyn and the Bronx during the pandemic. These images are layered with indexed maps and data correlated to the pandemic’s impact on the city. Poetic image descriptions written by machado and animations created by Lin—which draw inspiration from elemental and celestial charts for navigating time and cycles of pain, along with guidance from the Tao Te Ching—frame the video on the web page.
Critically engaging with New York State’s reopening plan of arbitrary, constructed phases set in contrast to cycles found in nature, the artists aim to showcase the heightened anxiety of experiencing the “outside” world in a predominantly medicalized way during the pandemic as the public world has shifted radically between shutdowns and Black Lives Matter protests. Through the frameworks of disabled/crip time, sick time, and pandemic time, the piece takes a look at the disablement further imposed on communities who identify as sick/ill/disabled during a pandemic and how we might better account collectively for the well-being of one another.