Fragments are the only forms I trust

White Columns, New York , 2022

Artists: Morgan Canavan, Scott Marvel Cassidy, Ajit Chauhan, Edward Givis, Julia Goldman, Amy Ritter

We can only touch on a surface, which is to say the skin or thin peel of a limit.
– Jacques Derrida

The selected works present fragments that focus on intersecting themes of memory, touch, and the immediate physical environment.

The fragments suggest that they are part of something bigger and that, if brought together, can give us intimate views into the personal histories of their makers. We are surrounded by fragments and memories of a life lived. They tell stories in pieces weighted with emotion and significance. Recorded and unrecorded moments weave together through scenes and revelations of the narrator’s life.

We can’t touch without being touched. When we grasp or brush against an object, we are as close to it as we can possibly be. Touch often leaves a memory trace — without much conscious awareness — that persists long after the physical sensation is gone. We may not be able to express how something felt, but we will be able to recognize it by holding or seeing it again. By creating replicas of reality, memories become objects in the artists’ imagination. They isolate elements like windows, screws, plants, car door handles, album covers, or newspapers as imperfect traces of the past. The visual immediacy and resonance of these objects are the starting point for an exploration in introspection.