Gray Space Exhibition Closing | SAIC Sullivan Galleries
I've been asked for years in publications, by strangers, by professors, by my family - "does it make you uncomfortable to be so vulnerable in your work?" My answer has always been the same; no. Though the subject of my work is often very personal and close to my heart, the way that I process situations that trouble me is to distance myself from them through photography. The distance allows me to understand the situation from a different perspective than my own, and it usually makes me feel as though I'm an outsider and able to handle things with a clearer head. This feeling hasn't changed in the last 8 years that I've been photographing myself, and I doubt that it ever will. It's the reason I think that photography is such a unique and empowering experience, because it ranges in the feelings it can provide the subject and it can heal through creation. It can also allow others to find their own meaning in the work that may be different from my own, and find something that speaks to their own experiences.
My series Gray Space is a photographic journal of my visits going back home since I've moved out, and the state of my childhood bedroom now that I don't occupy it anymore. My bedroom is being used by my mom as a painting studio, as a storage unit by my childhood friend from down the block that I don't speak to anymore, and by my sister and her fiancé as a closet before they move into their first home. The exhibition is for my BFA thesis at The Sullivan Galleries, and it'll be closing on Friday - if you'd like to see the work in person before it closes, the hours are Monday-Saturday, 11am-6pm.
