Kim Llerena

Artist Statement:

My current body of work, a selection of which is presented here, is a study of two iterations of domestic memory, photographed in two empty houses in different locations. One is an abandoned duplex previously occupied by a family of four but most recently used by local teens as the party house in a small vacation town; the other is a model unit in a planned suburban community used to attract potential homeowners to the area. One space is arrested in time, layered with referents of memories left behind by the people that formed them; the other is suspended in some intangible non-time, meticulously arranged to suggest a universal happy home life against the obvious irony that one will never exist there.

During multiple visits to each “residence” I’ve discovered a dialogue between them that is at once poignant and strangely comedic. This series ponders not only the portability and manufacturability of memory, but also the dual role of the photograph as indexical medium and artistic device, as documentation and aspiration, with the power to highlight what we want, what we construct, what we take with us, and what we leave behind.

Critique:
September 7th, 2010
First Years Present

December 7th, 2010
“Formations of Space and Memory”

April 12th, 2011
Model and Abandoned