This piece repurposes an archival photograph of my aunt at a childhood birthday party in the early 1970s. The photograph’s emulsion has been lifted from its original paper and transferred onto a broken piece of blue glass – its long exposure has captured the motion of the event while blurring faces long the way, turning the image into a hazy recollection rather than a clear memory. This effect, coupled with the glass’s color and texture, evokes a distant, nostalgic feeling reminiscent of my own memories of birthday parties filled with family, friends and piñatas. The transfer onto broken glass and the intentional distressing of the image both mirror the fragmentation of memory and identity— with the cracks and distortion representing the fractured recollections of childhood experiences. The piece serves as a metaphor for the way memories, much like a piñata, can shatter into pieces – some lost, others enduring, but each fragment carrying a piece of the past.

Ernesto Cabral de Luna

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Ernesto Cabral de Luna is a Mexican lens-based artist working in Toronto. Utilizing both analog and digital processes, he merges experimental techniques with sculpture and installation, printing onto unconventional and manipulated surfaces to emphasize the multi-dimensionality and materiality of the image. His work centers around altering perception through image manipulation – providing new ways to experience recognizable imagery in unconventional manners and outside of their intended purpose. Ernesto's practice is interested in the fragmentary nature of memory, both individual and collective - and constantly seeks new ways to manipulate these alternative histories he is creating. Ernesto received his BFA in photography from OCAD University in 2024, where he received the 2024 Barbara Astman Photography Award and the 2021 Wendy Coburn Art and Social Change Scholarship. A recipient of the 2024 Gallery44 Residency Award and the 2024 Partners in Art's Artist-Direct Grant, Ernesto has exhibited at Patel Brown, Ignite Gallery, Ada Slaight, Xpace Cultural Center, and Abbozzo Gallery. Ernesto was selected for the Toronto Raptors’ 2022 Welcome Toronto Creators Program. He has worked closely with notable companies such as The Toronto Raptors, Coors Light and Walmart Canada. In summer 2024, he was commissioned for a public mural by Luminato Festival at Finch Station, as well as a public billboard outside Artscape Youngplace for Critical Distance Centre for Curators. His work is a part of Casey House Foundation's 2024 Art with Heart auction. Ernesto’s thesis project has been supported through funding by OCAD’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists, The Ontario Arts Council and Partners in Art Canada.