We had our first crit of Spring semester on Friday which has definitely got me thinking and excited about the upcoming show. First an updated description of what I want to do for the show and what the critique on Friday was centered on.
My hope is to address two main points of interest. I am creating an installation using design and photography that will capture my grandparents and serve as a portrait of them and by extension my family. At the same time the work will focus on memory and the certain amount relatedness that comes with the idea of nostalgia. I want people to feel comfort and warmth, the fondness of the past.
What I want to do is to design an environment in which viewers in the gallery can feel comfortable. Memory is sensory; it can be evoked by so many different things (sights, sounds, smells, touch). While everyone’s experiences are different, there is something about the idea of remembering, of looking back, that is constant and allows for a certain level of relatedness. In my gallery space I will be setting up this scene of the living room in which viewers can interact with the details and memories that are personal and specific to me and perhaps further reflect on their own.
My group responded well to my ideas and gave me alot to think about. I am trying to iron out the way in which I will display the photographs of the house I have taken in juxtaposition with the old photos and memories I have been collecting. I think that in flipping through my own photos some of their effect is lost and they would stronger hung on a wall perhaps behind the couch.
There were mixed thoughts on a series of collages I began making as experimentation for the start of a memory book. Here I took found photographs (of people in my grandparents house) and layered them in a collage style with the corresponding picture of the room in the house. I also added text about things I remember.
So I am still unsure of exactly how the elements are coming together but I am continuing to experiment in hopes of find a way to balance all of my content.
