The Ones Who Went Before and Come Again
This work was developed in response to a period when grief and fear had to give way to release, reclamation and growth. The dangers of a twisted patriarchal society can become even more acute to a mother who is watching her daughter go off to explore the world and try her hand at an independent life. The fears held in that moment are many and can cloud, for the mother, the joy of the daughter’s exciting transition.
The Ones Who Went Before and Come Again brings this shift into focus by documenting personal items that were left behind. Items that were once part of a developing and changing identity shed for new autonomy. By using cyanotype on oversized paper to document these items, the body is both there – in the structure of the clothing – but not there. This method of photography is incapable of capturing hues of the items themselves, but can convey the form, texture and shadow of what’s exposed on its surface with its own inherent cyan hues – an apt rendering for a memory or for a gesture of loss.
Paired with techniques of an old traditional craft made by women, Pajaki, another layer of loss is introduced through reclamation. Representation of an imbedded identity emerges again, by learning this craft, as a reminder for the celebration of the seasonal divisions in a year, but also of the seasonal divisions in a life, and the cyclical nature of both. One season is over to give way for another and only until it returns, when it is time.