Issue 147 Reconstructed, curated by Yorgos Efthymiadis
Every other year when I return to visit my homeland, I cannot shake off a feeling of non- belonging. Retracing the long traveled paths of my memories, I struggle to fit into a place I had consigned to the past in the process of moving on with my life, only to now realize that I have been banished in return.
As an artist, I am drawn to work that explores these ideas of origins and home. I feel inspired to share the work of four photographers who approach this deeply personal subject from different vantage points.
Reischwitz’s composite images from Spin Club Tapestry combine the present and the past through embroidery. The stitches, although incomplete and fragmented like the artist’s memories, seam together the two different timelines, resulting in the creation of a new identity.
Ronconi revisits her origins in the touching series Serás mis ojos, in which she restores the fading memories of her aunt, an Alzheimer’s patient. Through these masterful studies of ambient light, the artist embarks on a self-therapeutic journey of rediscovery.
Teixeira’s multi-panel installations from Dog Days on the Chaparral fabricate a personal geography that bridges together disparate and impossible landscapes. The artist’s presence is felt simultaneously in both homelands, rendering his particular and complicated sense of self while mirroring every immigrant’s experience.
Finally, Menjivar’s project First Generation finds remarkable and moving contrasts within the daily life of her family. Portraying the split between two cultures in the same household, the ones who migrated and the ones born here, her photographs encounter and reconcile the generational gap between the two halves.
Yorgos Efthymiadis, Guest Curator
The Curated Fridge | @thecuratedfridge | @yorgosphoto
First Generation by Iaritza Menjivar
Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz
Serás mis ojos by Eleonora Ronconi
Dog Days on the Chaparral by Hugo Teixeira
Check out RÄUBER by Josh Kern, Charcoal Book Club’s July 2021 book