As human beings, I believe our identity is composed of a layering of stories. Those we retell about ourselves, those we overtime ascribe importance and value to, as well as those stories which intentionally or not fade away. This series of work is about this layering of stories and meaning, as well as the information and physical mechanisms that make one human. The title “shades” was chosen in reference to the nuances of this work, its physical form and its ideas.

The images within these silhouettes are collected from a variety of sources including, medical and mechanical texts, personal and found photographs and items I have discovered in my daily life or those which simply found me. Regardless of its origin these images are all printed onto thin Japanese paper known as washi. Using this whisper thin paper, I can laminate prints together producing an image with three-dimensional depth as one layer is seen through another and another, and so on. The process creates an image that is much like a memory, as some information may be lost as something new is placed in front of it.

These complex visual images reflect both cognitive and non-cognitive understandings of our selves. The limitations of memory, the affects of time on the body, the affects of our childhood upon on our adult life, the aspects of both our internal and social self, all of those dialogues which fill our minds are presented in this work. The images are not always pretty, and at times are suggestive of displeasing shades and shadows. But this is a necessary element, as the contrast of beauty and ugliness is what creates a rich life experience.

Working with the shape of the silhouette, or shades as they were first called, gives the work a final reference back to the physical body. The silhouettes first used for these pieces were taken from photographs by Alphonse Bertillon, the creator of a system for identifying criminals by means of specific body measurements, while most recently the silhouettes are taken from individuals I know. Either way hand cutting the images and presenting them as silhouettes points to the commonality of the human form, as the vessel we each temporarily have to hold our physical stories.