Courtney Rile was the mother of a toddler when the emergence of COVID-19 triggered mandatory stay-at-home orders in March of 2020. . The change, confusion, and uncertainty of that time mirrored the feelings she experienced during her “fourth trimester”—the twelve weeks in a mother and baby’s life after the baby is born. Rile turned to photography to help process both motherhood and grief, and to cope with the changes in the world around her. The resulting portraits of friends with young children, as well as portraits of her daughter and other images captured in Rile’s home, made during lockdown and its immediate aftermath, explore the passage of time and the duality of inward and outward looking.
Separating birth from death is impossible. Shortly before Rile began this series, when her daughter was in her actual fourth trimester, she witnessed the death of a loved one. Since that time, Rile has witnessed more death, an experience shared by many during the COVID quarantine. Her daughter is now six years old, and these photographs are even more meaningful because they carry the grief of the COVID-19 pandemic, the grief of collective loss, and the grief inherent in the passage of time.
Courtney Rile is a lens-based artist and co-founder of Daylight Blue Media, a video production company in Syracuse, New York. She holds a BFA in Art Video from Syracuse University and an AA in Communications from Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania. Rile’s photographs, documentary films, and experimental videos have been shown widely regionally and internationally. Rile has been commissioned as a video artist by the Society for New Music. Rile previously served in communications and curatorial roles at Delavan Art Gallery, CNY Arts, Salt Market, and many other initiatives, alongside work as a journalist, adjunct professor, and guest speaker.
Courtney Rile: Moments in Between is part of the Everson CNY Artist Initiative, an exhibition program that celebrates the multi-faceted talents of regional artists. The CNY Artist Initiative is made possible with support from Terry and Bill Delavan. The Everson is supported by the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation; the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
