“The Weight of Slumber is an exploration of grief as it unfolded during the unprecedented events of 2020. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown, my grief and loneliness were immeasurably compounded by the abrupt end of a near-six-year relationship. Quarantined and faced with the sudden loss of intimacy and physical contact, I began forming a connection with—and harboring an attuned sensitivity to—the immediate spaces and objects around my home. From the smallest insects to the chorus of rain marching down my gutters, from the snow blowing in through my window living and dying on my bed, to the found photographs I obsessively collected—everything seemed to whisper with weighted words. Sought in the heart of all things: a prayer, a song, an embrace.

Deep in the vacuum of isolation, I yearned for the familiarity of touch, of love and comfort. These images served as vehicles for reconciliation and escape—a simultaneous mirror and compass through grief. Meditations on space, proximity, surface, and ephemerality, recreate the mental landscape of loss and longing I struggled to navigate.”

This publication was made possible thanks to the generous support of the MUUS Collection / Penumbra Foundation Risograph Print & Publication Residency. A hand-made edition of 60, The Weight of Slumber was produced over the course of three weeks at the Penumbra Foundation Risograph facilities in New York.

The Weight of Slumber

© Ryan Frigillana

© Penumbra Foundation for this edition

Published by Penumbra Foundation: September 2021

12 1/4 x 10 inches

68 pages | 44 photographs

Screen printed softcover | perfect bound

Risograph printed on Mohawk Eggshell 80T

First edition of 60

ISBN: 978-0-578-95090-7

Documentation photos by Kevin Kunstadt for Penumbra Foundation