Stomping Grounds: Senior Seminar Highlights Show
Caroline Abella
I can’t remember it exactly. I’ll revisit it a hundred times over, again and again. It shifts a bit each time. I lose details, I come up with new realities. I can picture the same scenario occurring in different locations from different angles, unsure of what the reality may be, as I can see them all so clearly. The truth begins to warp. Memories morph into something strange.
I have been exploring a Bic lighter from all vantage points using different approaches. Through these glimpses of a lighter, a memory is explored. In its specificity and its simplicity, details become near and distant. An attempt is made to reach accuracy, exploring each possibility to find the piece of the puzzle that fits best. As all avenues are explored, different possibilities seem plausible and can make sense within the confines of the memory. In revisiting a key detail to piece together something more fully formed, the exactness of the true nature of the form begins to vary.
New details begin to emerge as the memory is revisited—a figure emerges, appearing from different perspectives while smoking a cigarette. The ephemeral manifestation of the tool becomes more grounded once its purpose is realized within the scene. In vibrant colors, these visions stand out vividly. The figure appears from different angles as more explorations of a memory develop into a new space. Wrapped together by the key detail of the lighter, the other elements start to combine. Explorations of multiple interpretations and angles join in one space, expanding and shaping into something new. Over time, details can change, even as one may fight against it.