Re-Collection
“Re-Collection” is an exploration of the physical experience of sense memories*- those fleeting recollections triggered by a smell, sound, or taste - through a sculptural layering of monochrome photography printed on plexi-glass. Through this layering, images of past and present join into one- constructing an entirely new space where the viewer is standing in both times at once*. Elements of time and space to become abstracted while small details shine through, recreating the experience of a memory briefly touching the consciousness before fading out of view. The viewer is invited to walk around the pieces, viewing the layering of abstracted elements from different angles and changing the compositions through their own initiation. Further, the use of monochrome images look back to the cyanotype techniques of early photography, while the sculptural presentation of these works reference contemporary art practices. Thus, the duality of past and present becomes a major theme of Re-Collection- through the combination of imagery, the combination of rendered and un-rendered and the references to early and modern photography.
*Research and descriptions of sense memories taken from Marcel Proust’s The Proust Effect: The Senses as Links to Forgotten Memories
“A memory is more of a construction than a reconstruction: memories never reconstruct the past precisely, but add elements from later and from the present, thereby creating a new experience with elements from different moments in a person’s life... It is as if we are briefly standing with one foot in the past and the other in the present.”
Marcel Proust in The Proust Effect: The Senses as Links to Forgotten Memories
