"Memorandum"
2016, Inkjet prints, 14” x 11”
“Memorandum” is a series of four images that uses layers of alterations to visually record how traumatic memory collapses distinct events. Alterations include distorting the film in a large format camera, using charcoal to create projected shadows, scanning two black and white negatives at once and digitally coloring the images to insert color where there was none. Symptoms of PTSD, like hypervigilance and flashbacks, color daily interactions by projecting past experiences onto the present.
"Landing"
2017, 2:57
“Landing” simulates the vivid experience of a flashback without using graphic images of violence. A flashback can feel both paralyzing and disorienting, as there is a mental detachment from the present. The traumatic memory becomes an overwhelming bombardment of visual, audible, and physiological responses. Learning to be mindful of breathing is a critical tool to regaining awareness of the present. “Landing” visually exposes the dynamics of losing control and falling apart, versus feeling grounded.
"Best Evidence: In This Case”
2016, oil on Inkjet paper, Inkjet print, 18" x 36"
This series fabricates a visual testimony cataloguing physical injuries in a way that critiques institutionally accepted forms of evidence. Both the content and form of the works are staged. Costume makeup was used to create the bruises and marks, and half of the images in the series are inkjet prints and the other half are oil paintings on inkjet paper. It challenges way institutions require physical evidence of harm to validate domestic violence.
“Best Evidence: In This Case” is first seen through the guise of photography, which is a medium often associated with ability to capture the objective “truth.” These images are not evidence of recent wounds, as they appear to be, but rather a present day projection of past trauma. One key element that sets the oil painted photos apart from the inkjet prints is that they are not archival and will degrade over time. This visual testimony is proposed as having a more truthful essence than the photographs in the series, as it mirrors the way trauma alters a person beyond outward physical harm.
