Artist Statement: During the COVID-19 pandemic we have gone through several liminal stages. We have had surges that lead to restrictions, then decreased cases that lead to re-openings. Coinciding with re-openings and the loss of restrictions, the virus has mutated and adapted into new variants. In many circumstances we are no longer able to effectively track new infections or fully understand what measures offer the best protection.

Throughout the pandemic there have been protests and convoys demanding that people should be allowed to forgo standard vaccinations or testing requirements to enter public spaces, or for long-haul trucking. Many protests happened not long before provinces had already made plans to remove mask mandates and ease restrictions. We have no idea when or if we will come out the other side of this pandemic. In the past two and a half years, we have gone from one liminal stage to another. Each time we find ourselves stuck in an in-between state of being, it is hard to imagine that there will be an end to it.

Stairways can represent this idea of being in-between. We use stairways to get somewhere we need to go. At each end there is a threshold to cross. To me, stairways represent the seemingly never-ending passage from one liminal stage to another.

Always climbing stairs can represent a loss of control, the feeling of exhaustion and the sense of being stuck in a void-like space. The void like space can represent the feeling that we cannot move on into spaces where we are able to do the things we want to do, but also the feeling that we can’t go back without there being consequences.

Even so, and despite the fact we can’t see what is up ahead, we must not get stuck in the void, or in-between. We must keep climbing stairs, moving forward, and crossing thresholds. It is the only way to discover what is next for both us and the world. —Alexander De Jardine