Kristen Brown
While attempting to organize and regain association with particular memories, these works explore themes of dissociation, transience, memory, and truth. Blurred and slightly distorted images embody a disruption in the way certain events are processed, resembling the process of sorting through memories that feel fragmented or scattered. Memory is not always coherent or a continuous record of something that happened; every individual has different versions of past experiences, and moments can often become blurred or distant. My works express the slipperiness of questioned or manipulated memories, as well as the anxiety and altered perception of reality that occurs when a memory landmark cannot be secured or properly categorized.
Referencing unconventional photographic abstractions, such as soft focus, motion blurs, and multiple exposures, I aim to express feelings of depersonalization and nostalgia, which disrupt the ability to understand or identify time. These works create disorganized situations and dreamlike atmospheres that evoke mystery while maintaining a psychological sensitivity. Soft surfaces and thin layers of paint create blurring effects to portray enigmatic atmospheres referencing a breakdown of comprehensible time and awareness. In an effort to regain loses in fluidity, resilience, and the normal capacity to organize information, these works capture the transitory nature of our experiences, portraying the impact of past moments and people.
