Déjà Vécu, 2024-2025
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Inkjet printing and screen printing with cut paper.
8 x 10 inches or 11 x 14 inches. Variable editions of 5 each. |
For this series, I took photographs from my family archive as well as family photographs that I purchased from strangers on eBay, mixed the memories together in an effort to erase their authorship from my consciousness, and then selected images from the grouping that embodied what Roland Barthes calls a "punctum."
I begin creating these works by digitally printing the scanned photographs at scales that reference typical family photographs that would be displayed in a home (8x10 or 11x14 being the most common sizes displayed). Using the photograph as a catalyst, I use automatic writing techniques to recreate memories for the images. Each time we recall a memory, that memory is changed. To me, this fact blurs the importance of "truth" or "accuracy" in recollection and allows my writing to take on the same authenticity as someone genuinely recalling the moment.
The text is then mirrored and screenprinted in my handwriting using a transparent silver ink. The mirroring of the text reference the act of looking backward, recalling the past, and places the viewer on the other side of the memories. I then screenprint the white line layers over the image. This layer is what I call the "soul drawings." These marks act to obscure the identities of the people in the memory because, for me, their specific identities are not the focus of the work, but rather that these memories could belong to more than just myself. The soul drawings also function as a reference to the aspects of people that cannot be fully captured in still photographs.
Finally, the prints have circles cut into them at key areas of the memories. Once cut, I twist the circles, sometimes only slightly but other times more obviously, and then attach them to the larger print in their new orientation. These circles act like alternate universe versions of these memories or like windows into earlier versions of the same memory.
I begin creating these works by digitally printing the scanned photographs at scales that reference typical family photographs that would be displayed in a home (8x10 or 11x14 being the most common sizes displayed). Using the photograph as a catalyst, I use automatic writing techniques to recreate memories for the images. Each time we recall a memory, that memory is changed. To me, this fact blurs the importance of "truth" or "accuracy" in recollection and allows my writing to take on the same authenticity as someone genuinely recalling the moment.
The text is then mirrored and screenprinted in my handwriting using a transparent silver ink. The mirroring of the text reference the act of looking backward, recalling the past, and places the viewer on the other side of the memories. I then screenprint the white line layers over the image. This layer is what I call the "soul drawings." These marks act to obscure the identities of the people in the memory because, for me, their specific identities are not the focus of the work, but rather that these memories could belong to more than just myself. The soul drawings also function as a reference to the aspects of people that cannot be fully captured in still photographs.
Finally, the prints have circles cut into them at key areas of the memories. Once cut, I twist the circles, sometimes only slightly but other times more obviously, and then attach them to the larger print in their new orientation. These circles act like alternate universe versions of these memories or like windows into earlier versions of the same memory.