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| My Then: Requiem for a Family Tree, 2013, 32.6 x 36 inches, pigment print on rice paper |
I grew up very free to roam my world, in a decaying
mid-century Cleveland, Ohio. I am more comfortable with things
emptying out and fading. Maybe we need our secrets, real and imagined, with all
our ever-present communication. Although I was born in 1956, my cognition
begins with my Granny Bole, born in 1881. She shared her life stories with me. Her
antiques, trove of early family photographs, trunks of rotting clothing and
finger bowls had a profound impact on me. This joins and collides with the span
of my decades, mixed with sardonic visions for a frightening future. Michael
Lesy’s book Wisconsin DeathTrip remains a
clarifying voice for me when considering issues around this concept. Lesy uncovered
a collection of Victorian glass plates in the Wisconsin Historical Society made
by a small town's photographer. What fascinates me about the vernacular images
is that they sat in a box for roughly the span of a human lifetime and that
what once was average and everyday had become singular and provocative.
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