suburbia

Before truly connecting with Suburbia, I had thought of the suburbs as monotonous and overrated. The houses are usually bland and serve privileged families. My exploration of the subject Suburbia provoked personal memories to surface after finding old photographs. I sought to incorporate the personal and nostalgic onto house structures, photographed from the second floor up to emphasize their repetitiveness and similarities. My process required the ripping of printed photographs of houses and 'fixing' them with paint, staples, and tape to represent a stereotype of the suburban family dealing with their issues. However, during that process, my negative association concerning Suburbia shifted. Working with the concept of Suburbia allowed me to bridge the gap of two opposing ideas; Suburbia and memory.

My memories from the suburbs are unique; they embody my family. I think this is true for every young person growing up in a family home. Sewing fragments of old personal photographs on printed photographs of suburban houses in enigmatic ways fits with the nostalgic effect they have in my mind. Effectively memorializing my past, metaphorically allowing the memory to become a part of the house. Consequently, removing articles stitch by stitch reveals small holes in their honor, where the memory lives even if the details are no longer apparent.