A Death In The Family
A Death In The Family•
dye sublimation aluminum prints
each panel 20”x25” | total size as arranged 68”x25”
2021
A Death In The Family is a triptych exploring the grief of an expected loss. In preparation for the death, I developed digital processing techniques that amplify noise in underexposed areas of a photograph and distort the delicate transitions between colors in the brighter areas. I bend the editing software to extreme limits to create otherworldly light and color, while preserving enough of the original sensor data to still call this a photographic image. From left to right, the images increase in distortion; the photographic presence gives way to digital manipulation. The final image, a shade of its former self, balances on the edge of known and unknown. A few steps further, who knows how many, and the image will cease to exist, fading into the chaos of noise.
The work was priced at $630.21, a symbolic number designed to complement the piece as it is displayed in a gallery. In a pandemic-induced anticipation of there not being an opening reception where I could explain my work, I wanted to give the viewer an extra hint using the information card that accompanies a hanging artwork. The price, when read aloud, sounds like a date, 6/30/21, which is implied to be the date of the death that is mentioned in the title.