Wedding Album
Project Type: Mixed Media \ Photography
Time: 2023
If wedding ceremonies carry the promise of continuity, then wedding albums serve as ideal accomplices. They shape our memories by flooding us with powerful and primal marital symbolism.
In the series titled 'Wedding Album', I created six images based on wedding photos selected from my family archive. The photos were scanned, reprinted and subjected to various disassembly and reconstruction processes.
By cutting out body parts and other personal elements, I was able to sever the photos' original context – highlighting the nothingness that lurks behind our most lucid moments of being. Weddings create a bond that leads to material and genetic continuity, yet it now lacks the active ceremonial repetitiveness of collective remembrance. This series undermines the meaning of memory, showcasing its superficiality and taking away its ability to establish relevant context. Thus, in terms of memory as a basis for personal rootedness, the original promise is no longer valid.
Memory: A Chronicle of Lacking
Memory holds many promises – to connect between past, present and future; to bring together multiple generations; to shape meaningful shared experiences. But these promises are often taken for granted, because they rely on human intention. And human intention works both ways.
As a granddaughter of holocaust survivors, family origin stories were never mentioned. They were cast away. Instead of being remembered, they were actively and intentionally deleted. But by creating a 'missing link', these memories replaced belonging and refuge with rootlessness and insecurity.
Working with my personal family archive has led me to create two series that deal with memory's lacking effect on my identity.
Working with my personal family archive has led me to create two series that deal with memory's lacking effect on my identity. The 'Wedding Album' series is described in detail at the top of the page. Another series, which is titled 'Paper Towels', is depicted here.