Artist Statement: Suspended Memory (2017)

After my mom passed away in 2015, I began to notice the absence of her presence in the physical spaces I inhabit and the mental space that her loss occupies in my mind.

While going through boxes of old photographs my mom had saved, I found scattered pictures of unoccupied living spaces. The absence of people is ominous in these captured moments, much like her loss is in everyday life. In Suspended Memory, I contemplate the mystery behind her decision to photograph these unsuspected places and document the spaces she has been. By reprinting her pictures on hanging panels of transparent fabric, the images create an installation of faded and vulnerable images. Through the installation, I explore both the preservation of memory and the space that grief fills.

The piece allows me to transform the void left by her absence into a physical and tangible space that represents her presence. Although her figure remains invisible in the photographs, it is felt, reminding me that while she is physically absent in the spaces I inhabit, her presence still remains.

Suspended Memory was exhibited at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College, April 28 to May 13, 2017.