/ATTACHMENT LESSONS

Colleen Fitzgerald

Material Needs 2024

September 5 - October 20, 2024

materials funded: photo papers, transparent paper, ink

Reflecting on our family histories helps us understand how we perceive both our present and our future. In Attachment Lessons, Colleen Fitzgerald reimagines the documents, objects, and images in her personal and family archives. Through photographic weaving, layering, collage, and other artistic interventions, these works offer an alternative way to visually perceive the concept of self and family.

Fitzgerald is curious how family archives (photographs, report cards, albums, vintage objects, and more) can be reimagined to more accurately reflect lived experiences and memories. While using the universally recognizable materials from her family archives, she constructs each piece with a unique process influenced by its personal meaning and subject matter. For example, Family Photo Album Covers uses a complex weaving of three pigment prints of her family’s photo album covers. The physical process of creating the piece mimics the hands-on process of crafting a complex album, and highlights the physical nature of prints contained in such family photo albums. The three-dimensional illusion of the triaxial weave emphasizes the three-dimensional nature of physical family photo albums as objects from older eras in contrast to modern digital collections.

The salon-style installation of these works, combined with the unique wallpaper, evokes the concept of home and encourages viewers to explore and reflect on their own complex and layered histories.