(American, born 1965)
Nest, 2012
Pigment print mounted on Dibond
Courtesy of the artist
Artist's Statement: Self-portraiture drawing on personal events is the dominant theme of my confessional art. Nest reflects trauma, betrayal, truth in memory, and identity that originate in my childhood. Past personal experiences are interpreted through conflicting memories that are read and decoded. I employ archetypal symbols charged with sexuality and narrative; the relationship and language between my objects and colors reconstruct the past and serve as cyphers for memories and emotions. My art is symbolic and defined through ambiguous forms that depict a conflation of time; everyday objects and color usage connote meaning. In this work, red indicates sin, judgment, pain, and strong sensations, both intimate and universal. Additionally, research on human memory, particularly episodic memory, brought to my attention the distinction between semantic and episodic memory, particularly regarding the recollection of autobiographical events, which echoes in my work. Memories are encoded to what happened and where and when it happened. The codes, therefore, prompt the retrieval of memories. The synthesis of method and materials directly reflects the conceptual structure of my photography. This dynamic process thus connects me to the objects in my autobiographical confessional art. Nest is morally ambiguous, an emotional tension between the truth in memory and collective identity. Fundamentally, it is a process of healing, serving to unblock traumatic memories in order to maintain psychological equilibrium, a purgative form of therapy – engaging the viewer with physical beauty and unsettling pleasure. |