CLEANSER

CONCEPT | Cleanser is a digital collage series that mimics the structure of memories in the brain. On a cellular level, the recollection of memories is an imprecise process. Chemical and electrical pulses activate regions of the brain where the memory might be stored. The goal is to activate a neural path known as a synapse that leads directly to the desired memory. In the fractions of a second it takes to bring an archived thought to life, you have had a kaleidoscope of other memories dance across the center stage of your mind. Typically we filter out the irrelevant data we recalled along the way, but other times are overcome with emotion, longing, or feelings of deja vu.   

 
 
 
 

Process | I spend a lot of time with a camera. As any photographer knows, it takes hundreds of photos to get the one or two good shots in the batch. These digital collages are made with the unused in-between shots. Each image is typically between one and ten layers of photographs. Starting with the base layer, a photo is blown out and distorted until it is almost unrecognizable. Then a new image is layered on top, and the process is repeated. In the end there is a completely new, abstract composition. The compound image is flattened into a single layer, and the production file is deleted so that the work can never be separated. Consequently, I am the only one who could identify the places and their relevance. Without me, they stand alone as new artwork with no past. Time and space become the medium, and so it follows that I would have little control over the outcome of the work.

 
 
3b.jpg