(2021) Abarasteh, Sahar; Blondeau, Lori (School of Art); Kalberg, Holger (School of Art); Black, Joanna (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning); Bridges, Leigh (School of Art)
This study aims to analyze the depiction of the following themes in the Autobiographical Memory exhibition, using a psychoanalytical lens: identity, memory, archive, surveillance, and the death drive. The artwork represents a journey that started when I arrived in Winnipeg in 2017: a journey through my memories. Immigration was the trigger for this journey, as the scenes and images of the past started to come back with an intense emotional impact, because in this new context they had started to mean something different. Painting, drawing, video, and collage hence became the tools to make sense of the past in the light of the present and to reconstruct a new self, a new identity. This body of work represents an autobiography in a postmodern context through a blend of near and far pasts, personal and collective memories, and private to public scopes.