Erased

Scott Whitworth

Degree: MFA

Area: Photography

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Thesis Statement

Watch the full video installation here.

Erased is an autobiographic video installation that investigates the experience of being an unwanted adopted child through the pointed erasure of myself from an archive of family snapshots. This erasure investigates the statement “I wish I’d never adopted you” made by my adopted mother. Erased investigates an alternate reality where I am no longer included in the family photographic archive, a reality where I have been erased from my family as my adopted mother had suggested. In Erased, original physical prints have been destroyed through the means of heating and chemical removal of the photograph’s surface emulsion. The erasure process displays for the viewer a colorful and mesmerizing array of chemical reactions taking place with the photographic surfaces from the archive’s prints. This initial aspect of beauty found within the video is in contrast to the haunting nature of what is occurring, the destruction and removal of an individual from their own family history. The video of chemically destroyed prints has been paired with video of prints that have been heated up to a point at which the emulsion bubbles up, distorts, and cracks. The heating is a rather grotesque display in comparison to the beauty found within the chemical reactions. This contrast between beauty and the grotesque references the variety of emotions that I have experienced throughout the creation of Erased, ranging from frustration and anger to feelings of being freed from a long-lasting burden. Erased is a deeply personal body of work that brings the experience of one adopted individual to a plethora of viewers.