Final Statement

My current work is inspired by the ancient and ongoing art of storytelling. Through story telling, whether through family stories, stories shared between friends, or even the voyeuristic approach of “eaves dropping” inspiration for a new piece can be born. Storytelling is a practice that can be seen all over the world, dating back to ancient times. People have been telling stories as a means to keep alive tradition, tell of ancestors and family, create societal rules and practices, and to simply just remember past events, whether personal or historical.

In my work I am looking to explore the transient concept of story- telling. I have created a piece with both a visual narrative, as well as a spoken word component. Through the various methods of image making done in the medium of collage, I am asking the viewer to interpret each individual block as a moment in time. Through these small synapses, the piece will create the opportunity for each viewer to build a sequence of events and an accompanying narrative for the next viewer. Each small block collage serves as a moveable part to represent the sequence of events interpreted by the viewer. I am interested in watching the evolution of the piece visually, aesthetically and conceptually with the coming and going of different participants. The movement throughout the existence of the work is a metaphor for the ever-changing vocal history that comes with a told story.

By including the element of sound, I am hoping to build not only a visual representation of a story told and retold, but also a recorded narrative. The recorded sound component is meant to give the audience the opportunity to voice their visual story in the form of vocal poetry. Hearing the voice of the previous participant gives the current viewer/participant the chance for a glimpse into a moment passed. With that, allowing the participant the choice to build off of that moment and continue, or erase it completely.

With the way in which the work is installed, I am interested seeing how the aesthetic and objectness of the blocks influences the incentive for the audience member to become a participant. Each block being hung on its individual hook allows for the participant to have the intimate experience of holding and redistributing the blocks of moments as they see fit and then continuing the experience by creating a recorded narrative and imprinting their voice to the moment that they created. The act of interacting with the work is just as important as the work itself. The participants and audience breathe life into the piece by contributing their own verse, whether physically with the movement of the blocks, or vocally with the recorded retelling of the moment they have created.