Bridge One: IS1

Each memory that we have is remembered differently, sometimes it reminded by a painting we had just seen, and sometimes from simply daydreaming throughout our day. Sometimes a memory is more vivid to than another, and sometimes it is just a blur floating around in our brain. However, they all carry the same significance; shaping who we are today. In this project, I have expressed my memories using materials that best convey the way they are remembered in my brain. The rough cotton provides a sort of expression that each memory is sensation that it is somewhat a blur, resonating with the way I remember these memories. I have utilized collages for memories that are more vivid and clear in my mind, but they still sit on the surface that indicated it is still just a blur. After all my memories are not exactly remembered as they realistically appeared, therefore I think that symbolizing how a memory is currently remembered is best expressed through symbols. These symbols not only represent how I visually see a memory, but also its impact on my personality. Lastly, the zippers. The zippers are a way to connect all the memories together.  Although each memory is unique by itself, they all connect to one object that has influenced and shaped who I am. This project carries a very personal experience, it is not often we think about our memories and express them visually, it is kind of an escape from the current time we are in, allowing us to look back and remember memories that reflect on how we behave.

 

Visual Memories:

I remember drawing people I saw on the train. I drew fast because I didn’t know when they would get off, and when they did get off, I used a different person to finish the drawing. Also at times I would draw someone and they start moving, I drew them just as they appeared every time I looked up. I had a lot of fun with that.

I remember swimming at Coney Island beach and seeing a black plastic bag floating in the water.

I remember driving down the roads in the Swiss Alps on a summer morning. The roads smooth as the grass along the sides and any directions I looked the mountains sliced through the bright blue sky with their veiny and cracked bodies. The big scale and organic structure of the mountains gave me a sense that I was one with the earth, that I was stepping on the raw untouched textures that grow from inside the earth.

I remember seeing my first Frank Lloyd Wright house. It was the Fallingwater house and my dad and I drove to it from Philadelphia for fours hours, it was in the middle of the woods. The house seemed like it grew from the ground of the woods, like a flower grows in a garden. I kept imagining how Frank Lloyd Wright would have walked through the house with his cane.

I remember my dad telling me stories about his encounters with Russian mafias when he lived in Soviet Union. I imagined it like it would be in a film, it gave me an adrenaline rush.

I remember when my step-brother, David, injured his ligament while we were rollerblading in the basement. We set up an obstacle course and one of the items was a small stool, David decided to jump over the stool in his rollerblades. He tripped and ended up landing on his knee. I felt a little pain in my leg when I watched him go down. We had to tell our parents he tripped down the stairs.

I remember bomb sirens in Israel. The country was in war for the first eight years of my life. We had to go in a special room inside our house when the sirens came on. Overtime I got used to it and it became normal. Sometimes you could hear a bomb land in the near distance.