The In-Betweens
The “In-Betweens” was a solo exhibition installed in the Trueblood Gallery at Boise State University in January 2018. 35mm film photography was spliced digitally and printed large on an adhesive wall material. See installation in slideshow below.
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The In-Betweens
Katy Rogan
2018
Explicit memory is one of the two classifications of long-term memory; they are memories that we remember consciously. As we go through our lives and gather experiences, we are constantly balancing being in the conscious present and recollections that influence emotions and actions. If we could visualize the storage and retrieval of remembrances, what would it look like? Physiologically, the hippocampus section of the brain carries out this operation. However, my visualization of a constructed mental space incites a scrambled optical manifestation of memory. Digitally splicing and layering sections of different 35mm color photographs, I combine the physical record of an experience with the digital nature of modern memory. Every photograph here is tied to a memory. The nature of the expired film gives unpredictable visual results, which can determine how I recall that experience going forward.
The aesthetic that results simulates the image distortion generated by the pausing of a VHS tape. My use of vintage point-and-shoot cameras mimics the distortion of explicit memory, which speaks to the the re-inventions intrinsic to recollection. Memories that are good, bad, and in-between ultimately all define us as human beings by sculpting our emotional and physical responses to the present.
