MAY 29 - JUNE 19

INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION -

Iowa City Photographer

Dorothy Grinolds

“Recollection”

STATEMENT

“As in an album of photographs or a collection of antiquarian relics, the past is constructed from a set of presently existing pieces.  There is not continuous identity between these objects and their referents.  Only the act of memory constitutes their resemblance.” 

- Susan Stewart, On Longing

“Memory” by Milton Bradley is a game I often played as a child on the floor of my grandparent’s den.  I was mesmerized by the images that appeared as I turned over each square card hoping it would match one I had previously uncovered.  The cards contained strawberries, birds, clocks, geometric patterns and buildings all isolated and floating in a white landscape.  The object of the game was to collect the most cards by concentrating and selecting matching pairs.  Stacking my perfectly matching pairs beside me on the floor was like an archeological dig; I was collecting fragments of something larger than myself.

Just as photographs refer to death, loss and the preservation of a moment in time, the idea of remembering is like a container in which we keep these references of the past.  When someone dies we are left with objects, souvenirs, of their existence; things which are only meaningful to those who possess them.  In this installation I am exploring the process of recollecting a person after death, the fragmentary nature of trying to preserve what is temporary and the remaining incomplete narrative.

The Exhibition Catalogue, “Recollection”  is available through the gallery, $30.