remember / memory / memorial
To remember is to hold a memory in one's mind. A memory is a thing from the past that one can bring to mind in the present. Remembering memories is one way that knowledge is gathered. It can also, like genealogy, provide one with a sense of connection to the past.
In self portrait from memory (blocked), I was thinking of my identity as chunks of stories that I remember or have been told. I then put these stories together in different arrangements to define who I am. Because I don't remember the first eight-years of my life, my formative years, I included objects from my past that are withheld from view. These included: a jar of red dirt from SW Utah, my baby blanket, and my favorite book from childhood. I also squished pictures of myself from those first eight years between these identity building blocks, addressing the tension I felt in not knowing my formative origins.
To remember is to hold a memory in one's mind. A memory is a thing from the past that one can bring to mind in the present. Remembering memories is one way that knowledge is gathered. It can also, like genealogy, provide one with a sense of connection to the past.
In self portrait from memory (blocked), I was thinking of my identity as chunks of stories that I remember or have been told. I then put these stories together in different arrangements to define who I am. Because I don't remember the first eight-years of my life, my formative years, I included objects from my past that are withheld from view. These included: a jar of red dirt from SW Utah, my baby blanket, and my favorite book from childhood. I also squished pictures of myself from those first eight years between these identity building blocks, addressing the tension I felt in not knowing my formative origins.
self portrait from memory (blocked) 2016
Memorials are another way we humans attempt to remember. Often these are made of stone, possibly because we see stones as memory holders, as our most ancient of ancestors. I plan to use this quality of stone, and existing memorials, to create memorials of my own in the form of video documentation of conversations and embodied rituals with the rocks of my home.
see also: arrangement, Deseret, embodied / embedded, fake rocks / real rocks, home, human exceptionalism, magic / ritual, myth, noninnocence / risk, origins / foundations, path, Red (Cliffs National Conservation Area), rocks / stones, southwestern Utah, spiritual experience, Ut(ah/opia), "what is"
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see also: arrangement, Deseret, embodied / embedded, fake rocks / real rocks, home, human exceptionalism, magic / ritual, myth, noninnocence / risk, origins / foundations, path, Red (Cliffs National Conservation Area), rocks / stones, southwestern Utah, spiritual experience, Ut(ah/opia), "what is"
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