Shrines to the Living and the Dead
Memory, family history, and genetic patterning are the basis of this work. Sourcing photographs from my parents wedding album, childhood photographs from our family album, and images of genetic data, I layered them all together with various materials to make distorted
versions of themselves. The repeated motifs are data visualization of genes that cause addictive behavior, something that is a part of my own and also many family histories.
Digital culture invokes the idea that recording every moment has become a diligent and repeated ritual, almost religious in its activity. I tried to slow down his idea, making painted,
digitally collaged shrines to various moments while considering how they are actually remembered. Memory is often like an aura- a fragmentation rather than cohesive or constant image; a faded moment held together by other aspects larger than itself, such as personal
history or inherited versus learned traits. In the paintings and prints, there are references to portals, arches, and gold leaf- reminiscent of religious iconography from the middle ages.
Threaded throughout is the genetic imagery, providing both image structure but also the reminder that some aspects of your identity are inevitable. The lighted frames depart a little from this, creating Rorschach like symmetries from MRI scans of the brain.
We all ask ourselves what shapes our identity when it comes to our existence, or that of our family history. On top of this, memories are created differently in every individual. How is this processed in a space where everything is quickly recorded, archived and then kept for both public and personal reflection?