Opening Day - Transferred Memories

"Transferred Memories: Prolonging the Past" opens today and Jackie Hancock imprints the experience of the family meal directly onto table linens, photographic ancestral visages fading in and out. An old trunk, shoebox, or salesman's suitcase is opened and we look to find a piece of ourselves in the visual history safely stowed within.

About the show:

Photographs capture a moment, which quickly becomes the past. Family photographs are marvelous pieces of history. My parents each became the proud owners of a set of my grandparents' family photographs; they arrived in boxes. During a trip home, a quick shuffle through the boxes turned into hours of slowly examining each piece. An album is being made, but there must be another way to display these beautiful black and white tokens. One thing I remember about my grandparents' homes was the fabric displayed throughout, for both use and decoration. I decided to transfer these nostalgic images onto beautiful fabrics. To do so, I took new 35mm black and white images and produced negatives of the old photographs, coated similar fabrics to those found in my grandparents' homes with liquid emulsion, to finally project and develop the images on the fabric in the darkroom. The process and materials represent my family's past and prolong their memories.

About the artist:

One of my grandfather’s worst fears was that when he passed away his memory would be lost. We, his family, knew that would never happen. Most of my projects focus on the present and future, but once I saw my family’s old photographs, I was captivated with the past. Having received my BFA in Photography at the University of Michigan in film and traditional dark room procedures, I've concluded that the process of traditional wet photography is the best way to keep my family's past alive. Currently, I am working toward my MFA in Photography at the Academy of Art University, focusing on digital techniques. This project is the perfect opportunity for me to get my hands back in the darkroom and prolong my family's memories. – Jackie Hancock

More of Jackie's work may be seen at jackiehancock.com
She is concurrently exhibiting as part of the Academy of Art Spring Show 2011 at 1849 Washington Street, now through August 15th.

If you'd like to stop by to see the Mauve? show, drop us a line.