Quarantine in Motion and Other Ways This Toronto Artist Is Coping
Quarantine in Motion and Other Ways This Toronto Artist Is Coping
When the coronavirus pandemic began, Mark Clennon was unsure of its severity. Now, he uses Instagram stories as a form of therapy.
WHAT COLOR DEFINES MARK CLENNON?
My favorite color is brown and I know it's not a fabulous color. Is it even a color?
I was born in Jamaica — a predominantly black country. Growing up in Jamaica, I never thought being black was a thing. I did not identify as being black; I’m not saying it wasn't a thing in the world, but for me then, everyone around me was black.
I moved to Florida and my mother sat me down the first week we arrived and said, “Listen, things are different here, be mindful of that.” I feel like as a family, we made decisions based on that. Now living with locs, as a child I always wanted them, but due to racial profiling, my mom wouldn’t allow it as a child. I also wasn't allowed out in certain hours.
I feel like the color brown is how I like to describe myself. A color not looked at generally as beautiful, where people might say, “It’s brown, it’s gross.” Brown is a metaphor for how I feel as a black person and it is a conversation about self-love. If I can embrace the color brown and love it, it's parallel to how I feel about myself.
Toronto-based musician Mark Clennon grew up surrounded by music: His grandmother a pianist, father a saxophonist, and his brother a famous dancehall producer in Jamaica where Clennon was born.
“I grew up in a musical house and so I learned how to express myself through music,” Clennon, 34, explained to Palette over the phone.
This is why during the ongoing mandated quarantine, Clennon continues to surround himself with what he knows best. He found inundating himself with the latest news on the coronavirus to be more regressive than progressive for himself, as the numbers and statistics surrounding the virus see steady growth.
As of present, the coronavirus has claimed around 264,000 people worldwide, with nearly four million confirmed cases. Daily, there are reports of struggling businesses and concerned residents questioning how they will pay their rent and/or survive through this pandemic. Clennon had those similar concerns
“I was planning a trip [one] week before everything got serious. I always go on a trip around February,” Clennon explained.
He described cross-checking his travel destination, ensuring there were no cases in the area. It was not until he went in to work his regularly scheduled shift at a restaurant, where he noticed a change in the general approach to the virus.
“My boss is not a talkative person but that day he was very talkative and concerned. He said, ‘If you're planning to go on a trip, when you return, you will need to quarantine for two weeks,’” Clennon said.
This would mean Clennon would be out of work for three weeks, as opposed to the one week he had anticipated for the trip. Clennon and his friends canceled the trip and the very next day schools in his area were closed, and in the next few days, restaurants were shut down.
“In a matter of five days, it went from ‘live your life, don't live in fear’ to [shelter in place],” Clennon said.
He spoke honestly in saying many of those he knew were in denial of the severity of the virus. Once he had time to see the severity, he grew worried about how he would support himself financially.
“With working in the restaurant industry, I had lost my income. It was very intense to process [because] even though I am a musician, I still needed my stable source of income,” Clennon said.
On March 25, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during a press briefing the formation of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit — an $82 billion relief package which, in part, would provide $2,000 per month for four months to Canadians impacted by the coronavirus. Clennon said it was life-saving news.
As days passed under mandatory quarantine, Clennon found more time on his hands causing him to seek out his creative roots.
Now threaded on his Instagram story and highlights are videos of Clennon in various spaces and motions. In one video, Clennon is face down twerking against the wall, in another he is seated across from a cat, slapping his thigh as he laughed. In one of our favorite clips, Clennon is simply swinging from a pole in his home. Each clip is organized by the day: “Quarantine day 1, quarantine day 19, quarantine day 28,” and so on.
For Clennon, this view into his world and how he is coping during the pandemic began as therapy.
“Going through things in my teen years — whether it was breakups or complicated family relationships — I would write songs and poems to help to deal with it,” Clennon said.
This musical ability also extends to movement, he explained.
“I'm a dancer, always been a dancer. I'm not shy at a party or club. It kinda comes naturally,” Clennon said. “Sometimes, I have to intentionally not dance.”
Clennon’s innate relation to movement then forged with his daily quarantine videos.
“I had a lot of free time so I got inspired to make a video. The reception was so powerful and every day it became a bigger thing,” Clennon said. “The great thing is it now gives me a routine. I plan out, visualize, storyboard [the videos].”
But the quarantine videos do much more than that as well.
“In a weird way, it tells people I'm doing okay. My family is still in Florida and Jamaica and so with these videos, they know I'm fine,” Clennon said.
Clennon continues to post his quarantine videos and said as an artist, creating such content is both inspiring and a necessary distraction from the sad news the pandemic can bring.