I realized yesterday that there are a few things I should have acknowledged in my artist statement, when I was talking about the lightbox. For instance, the fact that it is a lightbox, a digital image on a lightbox, not an object. For that reason, I would like to add to my artist statement, modify it slightly.
Artist Statement: Talisman
This object is a collection of trinkets from my life, a talisman of sorts. It has no real value, other than sentimentally, even to me. It exists as a catalogue of memories- happy, sad, humourous, bittersweet, naïve, distant and ongoing. The objects are cheap, simply stand-ins for people I’ve known, places I’ve been, lessons learned, moments in time. They are connected in the chain, making up small parts of the larger whole, my life. They are intertwined, unable to be separated, non linear, like the memories within my brain. They are things I’ve made, things I’ve earned, things I’ve picked up, and things I’ve stolen. Everything has a story, a bit of significance in my life. Not a large significance, however- the real significance is the way the moments add up, to make me who I am today. Through these objects, I remember my Oma, my first boyfriend, my childhood best friends, our Japanese exchange students, the kids I used to babysit. I remember the summer I learned to whittle, getting my ears pierced, my first day of college, how lonely I was in Montreal, a trip to Santa Fe. It’s a map of where I’ve been.
The lightbox shows more of my personality than my history. I am documenter, collector, archiver. Anthropologist. Shedding light on the image allows me to examine it. Using my own writing, I am cataloguing my collection, my experiences. Whether it’s legible or not is not important- the act of writing gives it a place, a context, a home, if only in my mind.
Digital Sketchbook 