Nostalgia Series: Cameras, Mourners, Storied Past, Nostalgia Bone
Much of my work centers on the universal feeling of nostalgia. Seen as something beautiful, something irrevocable and a place that will always be better than the present, it’s what makes people unique and offers portraitures of people and places long after they are gone. The word “nostalgia” originated in the late 18th century. Defined as acute homesickness it combines the Greek word “nostos” (return home) with “algos” (pain).
In her book, Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym writes, “A cinematic image of nostalgia is a double exposure, or a superimposition of two images - of home and abroad, of past and present, of dream and everyday life. The moment we try to force it into a single image it breaks the frame or burns the surface. What makes it nostalgia is the strong grasp that a memory has on the psyche and how it affects us time and time again.”
My nostalgia is manifested in clay. It includes sculptures of the cameras I’ve owned and photographs I’ve cherished. There are three shrouded figures mourning their childhood and two homes melting away just like the memories that were made inside them. Finally, there are structures constructed from nostalgia bones, each representing a significant past memory.
In her book, Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym writes, “A cinematic image of nostalgia is a double exposure, or a superimposition of two images - of home and abroad, of past and present, of dream and everyday life. The moment we try to force it into a single image it breaks the frame or burns the surface. What makes it nostalgia is the strong grasp that a memory has on the psyche and how it affects us time and time again.”
My nostalgia is manifested in clay. It includes sculptures of the cameras I’ve owned and photographs I’ve cherished. There are three shrouded figures mourning their childhood and two homes melting away just like the memories that were made inside them. Finally, there are structures constructed from nostalgia bones, each representing a significant past memory.