The Materials of Memory
Thesis Statement
Everyone has an object with a story. What makes this object valuable is the narrative wrapped up in it, and the memory it evokes from the owner. The object that stands as my symbol of memory are my shoes, for they serve as a representation of where I stood at a certain point in time. Through archiving and documenting shoes in different stages, it became apparent to me that shoes carry complex human narratives, for they grow and change just as frequently as individuals do. These shoes serve as miniature memoirs that give insight into individual’s life experiences and what makes them “them”. The power of archiving, recalling, and reflecting is a profound process and my body of work gives this process a form.
My body of work uses the art of storytelling to highlight that the past matters, and attempts to unify individuals by bonding over their shared experiences with their shoes. My body of work uses the shoe as a marker of time, to highlight the stories and memories created while wearing them. The goal is to present distant memories of shoes in a way that provokes storytelling and human narrative. This thesis gives form to complex stories of the human experience through the form of shoes, by using motion graphics, video, collage and print design. These projects uncover that shoes hold memories that can be collected, and can also be remixed to create something new. Shoes carry memories and meanings that walk with us through life, and ground us in who we truly are.
Inspiration: John Baldessari
I draw a great amount of inspiration from John Baldessari. He is an American Artist known for his photography and appropriated images. Baldessari is known to take found photographs, assemble them, re-contextualize them, and add his own stories to the images — creating a complex image made up of different fragments. Baldessari chooses what he wants to cover up and reveal in a image, which ultimately changes the story that the image evokes. The concept that his images can be altered to portray different stories or motives is something that intrigues me about the stories that objects hold, and the memories that are ingrained in them.
Inspiration: Carmen Winant
Carmen Winant’s 2018 installation in the MoMa is an archival piece that I find inspiring. After Winant gave birth to her daughter, she found an album of photographs that were taken when her mother was giving birth to her. Winant collected images of women giving birth, which are normally private, not publicized photographs, and plastered the walls with these images. They way she depicted this archive is something that I find inspiring.
Past Work
I made this inspiration book in my Junior Studio where I tried to depict my connection to my hometown through a series of images, handwritten letters, and paper objects that I had collected over the years. I believe that this book really captures an essence of what I feel when I am home, and I want to evoke a similar feeling for thesis between the objects I choose to display and the stories that go along with them.
These photographs are from my collections booklet I made Sophomore year. They tell the lives of these objects that I have collected throughout my time in college and the ridiculous, odd ways in which they came into my possession. The storytelling aspect of the book is what I enjoy the most looking back on them and is what I want to pull from for thesis.
Thesis Process
Thesis Experimentations
I really wanted to create a cohesive story line that moved through my thesis and I did that by creating a strong, specific visual language. This mini thesis project explored the life of a shoe through different stages in life. I was inspired by my little brother and his like journey through his shoes.
Thesis Logistics
Proposed Installation Plan
Final Installation Plan
Thesis Project Construction
Thesis Books
Final Thesis Show
My hope for my thesis installation was to create a mind escape for individuals to engage with and reflect on their past through the lens of their shoe’s lives. My piece served as a miniature memory movie reel that touches on narratives of reflection and the passing of time. Making this thesis was therapeutic for me because it let me reflect on the past while being able to create in the present. My study of objects and memory evolved many times over the semester to become Materials of Memory, and show that shoes hold memory.
