the archivist
A memory broken off, detached, or incomplete.
Our lives are a tangle of fibrous connections that have the potential to strengthen us, weaken us, bind us, and confuse us. Only by examining those connections in small fragments, as they exist in the larger collection of our lives, do we gain any understanding of who we are.
As I evaluate the relationships in my life, I perform repetitive actions in the form of braiding, tying, and knotting rope, pulling sheets of paper, printing, and weaving. The physicality of the process slows my body down and my mind is free to wander. My mind is free while my hands are busy working over the material until memories surface for contemplation. Emotional patterns and disruptions that I may feel are presented and archived as physical objects that leave me questioning which memories are ultimately true and which are imagined.
As a means of mapping and trying to understand who I am, I make, I archive, and I analyze.
media: rope, reed, handmade paper with waxed linen thread, cotton twine, ink, charcoal, borax, digital projection, and sound.
dimensions: site-responsive installation, gallery size: 18’x 21’2”x 11’4”
The Archivist, MFA Thesis Exhibition, was on display to the public at The Fed Galleries in Grand Rapids, MI.
Photo credit: Matt Gubancsik