θραύσματα centers around themes of identity, migration, and the desire to uncover one’s roots. The lives of diaspora are filled with a deep yearning for home, and the need to create a life away from it. By combining fragments of my own photographs together with family photographs, reassembling and reworking them, I construct new images that bridge the gap between time periods and suggest the conflict and consequences involved in relocation. My process includes research and editing in the assembly of images, then an intuitive response that includes tearing apart prints and re-combining them in unexpected ways. These physical rips are a metaphor for the splitting of families who fled from their homeland due to war or poverty. The images depict symbols of cultural traditions and family bonds, while the process of collage suggests feelings of displacement and isolation.
The idea of post-memory, a term coined by Marianne Hirsch in her book "The Generation of Post-memory", is a great inspiration to me. ‘Post-memory’ explains the relationship that the ‘generation after’ has to the collective and cultural trauma of those who preceded them. Through this perspective, I search for connections between my birthplace, New York City, and that of my ancestors, who originated in Greece and Pontus. These reconstructions illustrate a journey through inter-generational narratives, with the intention of creating new value for and insight into these personal inherited histories. This investigation through the perspective of an individualized narrative acts as a mediation between the realm of post-memory and the resolution of a troubled legacy.
