STATEMENT
Ark Lodge, our cabin of refuge, is a place where time stands still. Built over 80 years ago by our ancestors, it rests between two black rivers in a secluded landscape that has managed to escape modernization for centuries. Whenever we arrive, we instantly slow down, breathe deeper and become enveloped into its hauntingly beautiful presence. This is especially so on long summer days when it is unbearably hot, humid and buggy. Somehow we have all learned to quiet our minds and move only in small increments to maintain as much coolness, as we can. These slow actions deepen our awareness of our surroundings. We automatically lose our sense of time, and it can sometimes feel as if we are floating in and out of dream world. From dawn to dusk, we live in these nearby waters. Here—time is elastic, ‘slow moving’.
The endurance of my project was fueled by polaroid’s ability to evoke chance encounters with imperfection and describe a vulnerability relatable to both the human condition and the transformation of memory over time. It was initially inspired by a mysterious, fragmented collection of vintage family photographs left at Ark Lodge by our ancestors over several generations. The stories behind these photographs remain untold and led me to we weave our present into our past to create our own mythology. Over time the collection grew to include conceptual films that draw on archetypes and sensations of timelessness. Presented together in an aesthetic narrative, they work to transcend the personal to the universal, demonstrating how one person’s private world has the capacity to reveal the collective experience, particularly through the ephemeral world of childhood.
Ark Lodge, our cabin of refuge, is a place where time stands still. Built over 80 years ago by our ancestors, it rests between two black rivers in a secluded landscape that has managed to escape modernization for centuries. Whenever we arrive, we instantly slow down, breathe deeper and become enveloped into its hauntingly beautiful presence. This is especially so on long summer days when it is unbearably hot, humid and buggy. Somehow we have all learned to quiet our minds and move only in small increments to maintain as much coolness, as we can. These slow actions deepen our awareness of our surroundings. We automatically lose our sense of time, and it can sometimes feel as if we are floating in and out of dream world. From dawn to dusk, we live in these nearby waters. Here—time is elastic, ‘slow moving’.
The endurance of my project was fueled by polaroid’s ability to evoke chance encounters with imperfection and describe a vulnerability relatable to both the human condition and the transformation of memory over time. It was initially inspired by a mysterious, fragmented collection of vintage family photographs left at Ark Lodge by our ancestors over several generations. The stories behind these photographs remain untold and led me to we weave our present into our past to create our own mythology. Over time the collection grew to include conceptual films that draw on archetypes and sensations of timelessness. Presented together in an aesthetic narrative, they work to transcend the personal to the universal, demonstrating how one person’s private world has the capacity to reveal the collective experience, particularly through the ephemeral world of childhood.