Artist’s Statement

Recently, three themes have captured my attention: Documenting Stories + Preserving Legacies, Aging and the Body, and Exposure to Childhood Trauma.

Documenting Stories + Preserving Legacies

I have been fascinated by old, found photographs of strangers and often wonder how these images have become separated from their original families. It’s important to me to investigate their stories.

As Banksy once said, “they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” To keep their memory alive, I sometimes investigate and post my findings online. By doing so, I hope to postpone their final death by associating an image with a name.

Additionally, I’ve been creating interpretive “Post-mortem Portraits” by selecting a few items from the estate of strangers that interest me and photographing them through my lens. I recently realized that I can relax my sleuthing obsession over old photographs of strangers and start capturing and creating real-life stories of those who I want to document.

Aging and the Body

During a recent Photography and Video residency, my focus was on exploring themes of body distortion, identity, and aging. The resulting thesis project features distorted bodies, captured using office scanners and layered with various materials such as fabric, plastic, and masks.

Exposure to Childhood Trauma

My video art series, Memory Reassembly, explores the trauma experienced in childhood when exposed to adult themes too early. In the first piece of this series, Memory Resassembly: Shellshocked, I reflect on early childhood exposure to a soldier severely affected by post-traumatic stress disorder and the lasting impact it has had on me.

My latest project is a video installation proposal that explores the impression made by my next-door neighbor’s suicide.