RITTER, Morgan
Free Charger

Most generous, profusive, beautiful and crazy artist's book by the loveliest magical presence in Portland, Oregon. This object contains 9 works written over the past decade, poetry and text written in the entirety of Morgan’s twenties. While most works were small editions that are absent even from her own bookshelves, some are new works. She felt it necessary to formally crystallize that period of her existence and practice, by putting the selected material together into one solid object that can be opened and closed. Is it a body? A sea? A dream? A sensation? A cerebral account of the goings on of the mind?
In 2018, artist Jade Novarino’s Penny Press was commissioned to design FREE CHARGER in collaboration with Morgan. Over the span of a year, Jade and Morgan collaged and back and forthed big visions, and in the tail end of winter through spring, they worked intensely hands-on, recognizing the constraints and the expansiveness of the book form. Dealing with an archive of work and envisioning the best ways for each text to exist was not a simple task; but within this difficulty, came an imaginative unity between them. As is evident from the many editions, formats, and mediums that Morgan implements in her practice, her bodies of work are living and impossible to contain. Though bound, within the confines of this is not a complete history, rather a chaptoral marker of existence. Open. Closed. Spiraled. And split spiraled!

Self-Published, 2019
Artists' Books / Poetry / Magic