My most current artist statement reads:
“In my After the Apocalypse: My Grandmother was a Landscape series, discarded and forgotten objects are reconfigured, braiding themes of memory, place, and identity; encouraging a shift in perspective. I am fascinated by the way objects can connect people to memories, transporting the viewer to other places and times. My process disguises the original form and purpose of objects in an attempt to bring forward new narratives or invoke emotional responses. When the objects are taken out of context and combined with other objects, I find the juxtaposed and intertwined pieces then move beyond familiar descriptions and stories about the individual parts and through interpolation and the imposition of personal emotions become something new, free of history and memory and full of suggestion and potential. Recontextualization offers up a narrative of renewal. I often use the language of conjuration when I make these peculiar fetishes. They feel like counter spells as I tried to make something meaningful or beautiful out of the shards of a broken and fragmented pasts. This work for me is about how we experience objects and hold memories but also about the lifting of burdens and the promise of something new during challenging times.”
This is how I am approaching my studio project. Like the damaged objects I glean from the creek behind my house and combine with other objects to create new assemblage pieces that offer up narratives of reinvention and promise, I am working to find ways to reinvent, reinterpret and recontextualize the Ghost House. There will be a little reinforcement too to strengthen the bones of the old cottage. My After the Apocalypse work continues and this time on a grander scale.
It’s a shame I can’t rebuild this house with cardboard and papier mâché and grass cordage or I’d already be on my way to creating something new!