Robin Cone-Murakami MFA Visual Studies Thesis 2019
Remembrance
Remembrance uses storytelling strategies to explore how personal narrative may be a tool through which to communicate about and understand human experiences such as memory and mortality. My body of work examines the effects of loss through my personal and familial history as a means for healing, for myself as well as sharing potential ground for others. A book and reading room installation tell my narratives and allow space for vulnerability, acknowledging connectivity as a vital part of our humanity that is at stake as we live in an increasingly technologized and globalized world. In the book, styles of memoir, prose, and poetry reveal and give value to emotions in ways other forms of communication do not. Investigating the role of memory within loss, the reading room is a world within worlds, a juxtaposition of places, and also, none at all. The uncertainty, fluidity, and flux of memory become a signifier of our humanity as we struggle with hardship and search for connection to place and the people we love.