terry boddie: the residue of memory
DESCRIPTION
An exploration of ideas regarding place, history, memory, migration, exile, birth and rebirth. [These images] trace the development of these ideas over a period of 15 years. Fine art/photography.TRANSCRIPT
The Residue of Memory. These images
represent the exploration of ideas regarding place, history,
memory, migration, exile, birth and rebirth. They trace the
development of these ideas over a period of 15 years.
As you look at the images you will notice the development
of the ideas in the images themselves. As the images
go through these various states of transformation they
accumulate technical processes, iconographies and
narratives. Africa, The Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean,
North America, Space, Time are all points of departure.
Alternative photographic processes, such as cyanotype,
Platnium Palladium, Liquid Light, gum bichromate in
combination with traditional materials such as pastels,
oil stick, graphite, ink; and more recent processes such
as digital photo transfer all combine to create a unique
visual iconography.
– Terry Boddie
Terry Boddie spent his boyhood on the island of Nevis
in the West Indies and migrated to the US at age 15. When
he returned “home” 16 years later as a young adult the
impact of coming of age in two very different worlds began
to seep into his awareness and became the watershed of
his work to date: an exploration of memory, migration, myth
and idenity.
Boddie is a photographer, mixed media artist, printmaker,
book maker, kite maker - more precisely visionary. While
skilled and versed in traditional methods of these genres
he is constantly pushing the envelope to achieve his
desired result. “What I do is essentially utilize the entire
history of photography. I use…’alternative processes’ …
developed in the 1800’s, all the way up to digital techniques.
Whatever the idea requires is what I use.” This willingness
to experiment has lead to the unique qualities of his images
– complex in composition, both fragmented and layered,
literally and conceptually.
Boddie’s images are beyond mere photographs with their
ability to “mythologize” memory. Through his careful use of
the juxtposition of images and media he is able to invite us
to think about other ways of understanding deeply
contradictory truths and to consider where our own role in
the shaping of identity and collective history lies.
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These works intimately explore his personal relationship to:
Place and how it shapes us. There is an “old tradition in the
Caribbean of planting a tree on top of where your umbilical
cord is buried…I’m still very connected to that place…[still]
there’s this sense that you don’t quite belong in either place.”
History utilizing icons of Caribbean cultural legacy –
currency, stamps, plantation records and historical records
to challenge colonial “truth” verses both factual and
experiencial truth.
Memory and the origin of language, our ‘genetic
relationship’ to iconography and the plasticity of relationship
to frozen moments in time through re-referencing.
Migration not only from geographical place to place but
through our internal space traversing our grasp of our
individual and collective sense of idenity.
Exile pointing us towards transition through recognition of
the impact of ‘partial’ and ‘marginalized’ truth as it sheds
light on the inevitable Death of demoralizing historical
mistruths’ by deflating it’s glorifing icons with the imagery
he counteracts it with.
And finally Rebirth – the promise of a more intergrated and
aware idenity.
– Mary Z
photos © Natasha Guzman
Knowledge is
something that is
both given to you
AND something
YOU discover.
“
“
Inquiries:
Please contact 73 See Gallery at 973.746.8737 or email us
at [email protected]. Thank you.
Catalog design: Mary Z, 73 See Gallery & Design Studio
73 Pine Street, Suite CMontclair, NJ 07042
www.73seegallery.com
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Hours: Regularly Noon til 6or by appointment. Closed Mondays.