This installation resulted from the need to purge unwanted items in my life and, by chance, I rediscovered bygone treasures and memories. I found the process of revisiting objects that once held interest and value – X-rays, trinkets, and items thought lost – illuminates my history and our time. As an older adult, I value and want to honor what is behind me and what has yet to come.   

 

X-rays: as a young person I marveled at these revelatory images that make the invisible accessible. Like the X-ray, negatives, kept mementos of events, charms, and small gifts can also be revelatory. I repurpose and reorganize the mystery. 

 

The mark of my hand is exuberantly added onto the mix by soaking, scrubbing, and scratching emulsion away. I add paint to the backlit images, then string them together in sequences. The sequences can be read and interpreted as light, shadow, and reflection, revealing otherwise reticent information. 

 

Mesh, semi-transparent curtains form the alternate part of this installation upon which bones, photographs, beads, trinkets, and found objects are sewn. Like the altered X-rays they form an environment creating a meditative chamber which reveals aspects of one’s journey through life and time – alternately remembering and, sometimes, dismissing specific events. 

 
“Out of Body“ explores our changing times, bodies, memories, and collected possessions by revealing aspects of the self – by displaying them rather than storing or discarding them, I choose, perhaps, a novel way of recording my life.