Imprints
A distinct influence, a concavity in a surface produced by pressure, an impression, to impress, to mark // To impart a strong or vivid impression, to make a mark, to implant firmly in the memory or fix in the mind // A distinct influence, an indication, an impression, to press, to apply, to impress, to mark // To imprint a kiss, a touch, a caress with the lips, to impart a kiss by pressing or applying pressure. A distinct influence, an impression produced by pressure, to impress, to mark, to implant firmly in the mind or fix in the memory.
Description:
A site-specific installation made up of a collection of official prints documents. All of which were found abandoned in a vacant police station in Detroit. The ‘imprints’ (original found documents) are installed in a grid covering the gallery wall/walls with an inking station provided for viewers to add their own fingerprints and accompanied by ruined mugshots, found press images, documents, and a charcoal on tyvek text piece.
Statement
These salvaged imprints serve not only as a record of the decline and decay that allowed them to be abandoned but also, as a metaphor of the systematic ‘othering’ of Detroit that has helped to facilitate that decline. They represent the accused, both guilty and innocent. By inviting the audience to add their own imprints to those originally on the documents I aim to provoke a transformation from the official systematic and bureaucratic treatment of individuals to the primal desire of individuals to be a part of something, from forced compliance to free will, from accusation to absolution. The resultant mingling of marks, rendering each mark colorless, classless, ageless and guiltless is a deliberate act of self-implication and erasure, not as an illusion of tabula rasa or clean-slate rebirths but rather, as an accumulation of our basic humanity; the final mass of inked imprints is a testament to our fundamental desire to make a mark, to compose, to construct, to create.