vidya

For several weeks now, I've been working on what can be called a collection on many levels. It is, in fact, a collection of collections. The best way to describe it is to simply quote here an excerpt from my personal statement:

"I have also been engaged in a project to communicate with people when the desire strikes, regardless of location. I do this by recording that which I want to say to whomever I want to say it and doing a drawing with any available materials of what it is that I am seeing or imagining. Then, I burn a CD and put it all in the mail. My interest is in capturing these fleeting moments which contemporize the present, my memory of and nostalgia for a person, as well as the future moment when the recipient will open and experience the contents of the envelope. I have thought to call these little collections of aspects of a memory/moment “momentos.” The containers for these bits, as I call them, are in the tradition of letter writing, but all translated to my purpose. As marks of the place, I use a pattern created from rubbings of the acquedotto covers that polka dot the city of Florence. In addition, I design a personal seal to stamp on the back in wax. Here resurfaces my love of the tactile and spontaneous: in the frottage, the envelope making, but also in the act of receiving and opening this parcel. I wish my recipients to feel the difference between the interior and the exterior, to understand that as much as a particular place and moment has been delivered to them, they have also been carried, with me as their vehicle, to these places. We comprise the places we inhabit and travel to, even if briefly, and bring to them everything that we are.
Further, the structure of the experience of opening one of my mementos reflects the progression of a relationship between a person and a place, specifically in the context of belonging. An initial impression of a place is like a first impression of a person, which is superficial and begs for more information, and so the envelope’s exterior resists betraying its contents. However, the more time one spends with a place, the better one can to appreciate it and feel even a sense of belonging. So, my recipients might initially feel as though something has arrived for them from somewhere else, but will conceivably come to feel as though they, themselves, are a part of the space and experience contained therein. I enjoy this project immensely and have a great deal of personal investment in it. It remains to be seen how my friends and family react to the momentos, but that will become part of the art."

This process has been very satisfying because, finally, my art and my life are no longer two separate things.