Red Album

Presenter(s)

Charlie Pott

Abstract or Description

Red Album aims to make sense of my family’s past through the creation of temporary collages made out of natural ephemera and original photos from my family’s albums. The slow cathartic process of selecting and layering pieces of the natural world serves as a meditative homage to the memories that have been left behind in a physical state. The natural ephemera including flower petals and dried up leaves acts as a way of acknowledging the universality of memory and the passage of time. The collages are then photographed before being discarded. Another form of physical remnant that, not unlike memory, exists temporarily.

This project came about while I was thinking about my mother, who I lost to cancer when I was eight years old, as well as my grandmother who is experiencing early signs of dementia. I struggle to remember much about my mother’s life, and because of this I’m thankful for the photographs in albums that she and my father kept. These photographs preserve these exact moments in time, and in turn serve as physical records of these memories.

Most of the photographs are confusing to me; the faces are foreign and it seems I will not be able to understand the larger context behind many of them. Regardless, it brings me joy to be able to peer into this past life that has been lived.

Mentor

Lilly Mcelroy