"But I don't want them to think that this poverty is all that exists in Appalachia - to see it as hopeless, broken, dirty. That's not what I see when I look at this place that I love. But I know that for some people, the piles of seemingly useless stuff serve a purpose and an entrepreneurial one at that. They are always thinking of ways to earn money, help their neighbor, and provide for their family. There is drive, creativity, effort in unexpected places. I try to look at it with a sense of respect, to remember how hard they are working to survive in the overlooked corner of the world they call home. We don't take time to see it: the hope in the poverty, the spark in the dreary backdrop, the grit in the mountain-women" (Chambers).
Attempting to use "unexpected creativity" in a similar fashion to the mountain-women I came from, windchimes and flags made from recycled cans, fabric, and yarn from the Sable Land decorate the garden of hops (traditionally used to brew beer), a place chosen to mirror intoxication and affected memory as a result of a long, violent history of violence and abuse to the Appalachian region.
Continuing on themes of unexpected personal archive, restored memory, loss, folklore, and community, "Killmore," creates a backdrop for the characters created through the images and writing. Discussing drug abuse, the military structure, stolen memory (both personal and ancestral), and chemical interplay, clouded cyanotype prints with beet root powder and charcoal ash create soft, dreamlike shapes to mirror clouded memory and understanding.
I invited the viewer to interact with the space and the strings in a very hands-on fashion - bend, reach, stand on your tip-toes, lean with the wind to see the combination of polaroid prints, emulsion lifts, cyanotype prints, and written word on found archival stationery.
