Content-addressable data, 2020 Oil on canvas 10,1x12,7 cm | 4x5 in
This series consists of tiny-format oil paintings depicting family snapshots. The work explores paintings through the concept of photographs by duplicating a copy the same size as a photograph would be printed in the past. The idea is to discuss the banalization of photographs and how they became physically non-existent in the contemporary world. Before digital photography, family photographs had a physical presence in people's lives; reproduced and exchanged as proof of friendship or love, they were accessible and intimate objects. Also, before photography was invented, oil portraits were the only way one could possess the image of a loved one.
"Content-addressable data" is the stuff of memories, stored as snapshots and impressed as holographic images in our brains. It is there to show and play with hidden emotions that lie deep in our past. By choosing a family archive as a generative source, I aim to reinterpret and engage with memories, but more importantly, to create a gateway to navigate emotions and ancestrality. It is a reminder of what is dear to us and an opportunity to nurture the recollections stored in our hearts.
Content-addressable data, 2020 Oil on canvas 18x24 cm
“There is an internal transformation taking place in the process. From the snapshot to the painting, it is almost as if the memory lost its emotional charge, and only wisdom is left.”
