MFA Thesis: Nostalgic Identity
Prichard Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
April 15 - May 14, 2011
Thesis Abstract
The work I create is based conceptually around ideas concerning time and memory and how they can be assessed and categorized in hierarchies of importance or legitimacy. Through this understanding of how time and memory function I make artwork that challenges the notions of the accepted status of certain memories. My art and installations aim to resituate marginalized memories as reliable and confront the current socio-cultural reconstructions of memory. On the basis of this hierarchical structure it can be determined that certain marginalized bodies are the vessels for nostalgic memories. This correlation of nostalgic memories specific to marginalized demographics in turn restricts and delegitimizes both the body and memories associated with it.
The materials I use as the foundation for my work consist of found paper ephemera that have obvious textual handwritten traces and wear from usage and time. By using materials and objects that have obvious previous ownership as the foundation for my work is important in conveying nostalgic memories. Strategic and intentional choices in the materials used in my artwork are representative of the process of remembering, causing our memories to be a constant piecing together of information from the past. Focusing the viewer’s attention on the fact that not all the materials’ use are directly linked to me as the artist and my own individual history helps to convey a more universal collective history: it links the collages and installation to those interacting with it on a more emotional and personal level, in order to establish the dual nature of private and collective histories and the complexity of memory.
Click for Full MFA Thesis
