The shape of evidence

carved yellow cedar, paint, MDF, screws, copper, glass, mica, quartz, soapstone, granite, concrete, volcanic rock, salt, red lentils, black lentils, chili beans, cannellini beans, bamboo rice, poppy seeds, golden flax seeds, marigold petals, chañar, fruit pit, bay leaf, photography, 36′ x 6′ x 7′, 2022

Sharing a title with Sophie Berrebi’s 2014 book of the same name, the shape of evidence considers the relationship between photography and memory. Both the act of taking a photograph and the act of remembering document space and serve as markers toward finding the way to place-making, a fundamental part of existence. In the work, the viewer is invited to see from a distance– in order to think about how the invention of photography continues to influence the making of collective memory. The photograph is a gesture of record, a recording of what once was, of what happened. It’s a record of a relationship to space, to place, to land. It’s as if a record is necessary in order to see the vanishing of the world as it’s happening, so as not to forget what’s being lost. In the shape of evidence, I use craft to consider the ways in which I might depart from the photograph, instead remembering things in my own way– how I remember them and not necessarily the way that they happened.

the shape of evidence was exhibited with Gallery 4Culture in Seattle, WA in 2022. Documentation images by Josh True and Joe Freeman.