Say it Once Say it Again

For our final we were told to think of any of the previous art projects made by others in the class, and reimagine the project using a different artistic medium. We had to try to preserve the original intention and message behind the first project, but adding in our own voice with the new medium we use.

For our first video art project, Airy made a video trying to talk to her younger self, by interacting with the art she had made for a show about her family and childhood. I deeply resonated with the emotions she conveyed in her video, and I wanted to make a piece that conveyed that same frustration. We want to be able to remember who we were as kids, to be that version again, but time and experiences change us and create a disconnect. 

To reimagine her video, I decided to make a layered image. I printed out a picture of myself as a kid, on top I used a sheet of transparent tracing paper and wrote out a letter to myself as a kid, expressing that longing to know her and the frustration of remembering not remembering clearly. This way, the image of myself as a kid could still be seen through the tracing paper, but it was much more blurry. On top of both of these I used a self-portrait that I had made for my painting class. Instead of leaving the image of myself slightly visible, this canvas material completely hid the other layers from view. I like how this action of covering up symbolizes how we all carry invisible thoughts, worries, or younger versions of ourselves, that make us who we are. I made an intentional choice of only taping down the top side of each layer so that the viewer could lift each up, removing layers to discover more of who I am. My art became a sort of discovery process that still conveyed the important feeling of frustration.

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