In 2020, as I watched my hope for a better world crumble into dust, I felt the weight of history. Through the centuries, we leave behind everyday objects like pottery shards. Archeologists sift through these broken pieces to study the past. When future generations look back at our time, what will they think? I am an archeologist from the future, studying the broken shards of our history.
When we study history, it’s not always the whole story. During the pandemic, unjust laws, practices and attitudes that affect people to this day came to light. These facts were unearthed like the buried detritus of our past. It is only when we recognize the whole story that we can begin to change it. In 2020, thousands of people demonstrated and called for action. When future generations study our time, will they find that we met the moment?
The techniques I used in these collages grew out of anger and frustration. In the spring of 2020, I started to break pottery and then recreate the shards with textured pencil marks, tearing or cutting out each drawing and creating a sense of chaos by the way the shards land on the background. Objects bear silent witness to our actions. Someday, archeologists will study the detritus we leave behind. Broken is my way of recording the present as if it were seen from the future.
When we study history, it’s not always the whole story. During the pandemic, unjust laws, practices and attitudes that affect people to this day came to light. These facts were unearthed like the buried detritus of our past. It is only when we recognize the whole story that we can begin to change it. In 2020, thousands of people demonstrated and called for action. When future generations study our time, will they find that we met the moment?
The techniques I used in these collages grew out of anger and frustration. In the spring of 2020, I started to break pottery and then recreate the shards with textured pencil marks, tearing or cutting out each drawing and creating a sense of chaos by the way the shards land on the background. Objects bear silent witness to our actions. Someday, archeologists will study the detritus we leave behind. Broken is my way of recording the present as if it were seen from the future.