Korzenie
(trans. roots)
20 works on paper
mounted to wood panel
18 x 24in. each panel
mixed media
2018
The idea for Roots came up when my daughter Lena (age 3) was diagnosed with a Policystic Kidney Disease (PKD).
PKD affects our family and influences our family tree from now on. Will this effect Lena’s decision to have children? Is Lena’s diagnosis stopping us from having more kids? Lena’s diagnosis made me track back my personal family history as well as my husband’s. My family images of close kinfolk and distant relatives become icons of an identity, love, joy and strength.
I base many of my works in the series on photographs that belonged to my grandmother, aunts, and mother as well as images acquired from my husband’s side of the family—images found in shoeboxes, forgotten in the bottoms of drawers, or found among the tattered black pages of old leather-bound photo albums. The photographs have very personal meanings for me as the artist, but I have found also that there is an almost universal recognition among viewers of a sense of history and identity, evoking memories of their own family’s past.
Although Roots grow from a personal issue the aim of the work is to return the viewer to a specific moment in time—not a monumental or historic moment, just a simple, personal moment in one man’s family history. While it may be possible to peel back or peer around the layers in these works to reveal deeper intent, it may be just as possible to look at these works and think about a favorite aunt or brother’s old red BMX bike. What began as a way to investigate my family’s medical history grew into a deeper meditation to gain a better sense of what family means as I spent countless hours staring at their photographs and into the eyes of my loved ones, past and present.
(trans. roots)
20 works on paper
mounted to wood panel
18 x 24in. each panel
mixed media
2018
The idea for Roots came up when my daughter Lena (age 3) was diagnosed with a Policystic Kidney Disease (PKD).
PKD affects our family and influences our family tree from now on. Will this effect Lena’s decision to have children? Is Lena’s diagnosis stopping us from having more kids? Lena’s diagnosis made me track back my personal family history as well as my husband’s. My family images of close kinfolk and distant relatives become icons of an identity, love, joy and strength.
I base many of my works in the series on photographs that belonged to my grandmother, aunts, and mother as well as images acquired from my husband’s side of the family—images found in shoeboxes, forgotten in the bottoms of drawers, or found among the tattered black pages of old leather-bound photo albums. The photographs have very personal meanings for me as the artist, but I have found also that there is an almost universal recognition among viewers of a sense of history and identity, evoking memories of their own family’s past.
Although Roots grow from a personal issue the aim of the work is to return the viewer to a specific moment in time—not a monumental or historic moment, just a simple, personal moment in one man’s family history. While it may be possible to peel back or peer around the layers in these works to reveal deeper intent, it may be just as possible to look at these works and think about a favorite aunt or brother’s old red BMX bike. What began as a way to investigate my family’s medical history grew into a deeper meditation to gain a better sense of what family means as I spent countless hours staring at their photographs and into the eyes of my loved ones, past and present.
