Recollection

    Through my work, I explore connections of reality and memory. I have little to no episodic memory—there was no accident or trauma, my brain just won’t record moments visually. Or at least not in a way that’s accessible. As humans, memories are integral to a sense of self and how we relate to others. “We are who we remember being.” is probably something someone said once. So who are we if we can’t remember? Much of my art practice utilizes photographs and stories from my childhood to explore my lack of memory, attempting to clarify the past that I had as well as working to add other people’s pasts to my own. I prefer the term “borrowing nostalgia.”
    I am also interested in the breaking down and alteration of all memory. Every time we remember something, our brain changes that memory, so at what point do the differences between your changed memory and my fabricated memory blur? Remembering something a certain way seems equal to that thing actually being that way. So, is perception more important than reality?