Memory Box

Aram Bea

Area: Printmaking

Thesis Statement

Who is the dream that lives behind the screen? Maybe she and I could be the same thing?

"Memory Box" is a conversation between the past and the future, a place where stacked memories pile on top of each other to create a still, dream-like vision of self. When I look back, my memories are punctured with gaps, some things stand tall and true, while others have slowly danced away. Why not fill the empty holes with some sort of sweet stillness? Why not stare them down with all my changing faces? Through the use of old personal videos, found material, appropriated videos and imagery, sculpture, print, and animation, I’m filling spaces with idealized projections of my ever changing being, blurring the truth with some things untrue.

Through the blurring of truth and fiction, I am reconciling the places and experiences that have been absent through my life. I am telling myself secrets both known and unknown through images and videos in order to be able to actively reinsert myself into my personal history. These secrets manifest themselves as the aesthetic experience of "Memory Box", a place that has been cultivated for personal unfelt or inexperienced moments, tenderness, love, thoughtfulness, and femininity, in my existence.