Archive Mode. Call SLCC 2020 Student Art Show ended on 3/27/20, 11:59 PM. Call settings are read only. See Current Open Calls
Even families founded on sound principles feel the strain of life’s realities and the imperfection of those who came before them. My grandparents’ home represents the struggle to reconcile existence borne of both anguish and joy. Their home witnessed the unfolding of contradictory narratives so that while my experience within its walls conjures innocence and magic, its stories ring with the silence of suffering, too.
Artifacts combine with photo images and acrylic paint in this work to convey conflicting truths. The artifacts: words from the product labels of discarded pantry items and a pin off the clothesline, which I found at the time of their move to a townhome (2007); rose petals from my Grandpa’s casket (2013); and artifacts I collected at the site of the demolished house (2019). I reference Kintsukuroi, the Japanese art of repairing cracked and broken pottery with gold dust lacquer, which reveals the history and character of the pottery. Not all cracks heal, but with a new perspective, some cracks fill with gold. I also used fire, ashes and soil from the home site, for borne of breakdown, new life may emerge from the dust.
