Las Tierras Malditas, 2023

This inkjet print (Edition of 3 + 2AP) is from my series Mining For Some Sort of Continuity. A study of the fleeting nature of memories, this series focuses on how personal archives construct a mobile, personal, and ephemeral archive that is funda...

This inkjet print (Edition of 3 + 2AP) is from my series Mining For Some Sort of Continuity. A study of the fleeting nature of memories, this series focuses on how personal archives construct a mobile, personal, and ephemeral archive that is fundamental to the construction of diasporic identities. This work features a family photo of my mother during a 1970s family vacation to Cancún. Standing beside her sister and cousin, the image has been transferred onto a corroded copper plate. Much of the photograph has been absorbed into the copper’s surface through the transfer process, yet the human figures and parts of the background remain discernible: faint green tones from hedges and palm trees blend with the copper’s patina. The transfer creates a translucent quality, allowing sections of the image to dissolve into the copper, mirroring the fleeting nature of memory and the elusive process of recalling and forgetting. Inspired by artist June Clark’s reflections on photography and memory, this piece invites the viewer to consider: is the image fading away, or is it gradually revealing itself? This question embodies the duality of loss and discovery at the heart of remembrance, prompting us to ask, “Is the content in this photograph receding… or is it revealing itself?”