Pandemic Papers
M EIFLER, AKA BLINKPOPSHIFT
Pandemic Papers is an experimental archive logging my feelings within the context of news headlines, painted on the Sunday editions of my local paper, The San Francisco Chronicle. The project consists of over 44 paintings ranging in size from 10 x 12 inches to 1 x 1 inch, created from November 2019, when COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan, China, to July 2021, when San Francisco finally (hopefully?) retired its emergency order. Pandemic Papers gave me a way to store and recall my own personal experience of the pandemic despite my long term memory loss due to my brain injury.
Additional Details
About M Eifler
I am an artist with a pile of intersectional identities including being disabled, neurodivergent, non-binary, queer, and Jewish. I make archives, prosthetics, and simulations. My projects usually start in the waste streams of capitalism, sifting thru junk mail and newsprint, mining exhaust data and free apps, and sorting old clothes and hand-me-down yarn. From these sources I experiment with ways to understand myself and the world around me including:
- Paintings, books, and sculptures made from reclaimed paper and plastic
- Computational Interactives, wearables, performance, and AR/VR
- Digital collage, including AI, GIF, Drawing, Photography, and Video
- Handmade textiles, including garments, blankets, pillows, and sculptures
My themes: waste proliferation, speculative archives, computational prosthetics and others, stem from my brain injury which lead not only to my long term physical disability but also my severe memory loss.
I’ve exhibited work or performed at DHMD Museum, BOZAR, Ars Electronica, SomArts, TED, the Exploratorium, SFMoMA, the YBCA, and the Wattis Institute in San Francisco, XOXO, Wiensowski & Harbord in Berlin, Laurie M. Tisch Gallery and Armory Show in New York, Seattle International Film Festival, the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center.