Back in the Drink

Projection and Sculpture Installation

"Back in the Drink," as my grandfather would say when tossing a fish he caught back into the water, is an installation about my process of recovering childhood and family memories through documents, maps, and informal interviews while finding my place in my family again. This installation highlights the importance of community and my conflicting feelings towards familial connection, genetic inheritance and the behavioral patterns that take place in a family due to addiction, fear of the truth, and most importantly, forgiveness of others and the self.

Throughout the installation I utilize archival documents such as census records, newspaper articles, and archival footage captured by my extended family, ranging from the Great Depression to present day. Copies of family documents are affixed to the backs of recycled tumbled glass, ultimately brought to life by the projected imagery produced from manipulated archival footage. Fifty-seven casts of discarded vape pods and bottle caps, which were cast in molds formed from found trash scattered around the city of Columbia, Missouri, are placed strategically around the installation - hanging from the ceiling, stacked on a windowsill, and piled on the floor. These casts have been painted to match the finish of the tile in the installation space, incorporating an element of site specificity. The room that this installation was designed for is a classroom within a building that my maternal grandparents both attended classes in during the late 1960s and early 70s, as my grandfather narrowly avoided the Vietnam draft and my grandmother gained the right to open a bank account. 

As the viewer enters into the space, they are greeted with a tunnel of suspended farming plastic, illuminated with projected video art which includes archival footage. Passing the threshold, the viewer finds themselves under an arrangement of dangling casts with fibers and fishing line. There is an element of discovery - as the viewer rounds the corner, the projected imagery becomes less distorted by the plastic, and the main sculptural component is revealed: an arrangement of tension-bound glass and fibers within a flat welded crest, framed by paper clay tree branch.