so as to repair
Incorporating fabricated and found objects, handmade clamshell “memory boxes,” texts, and the filmic verse from there to here, from then to now, verses 1–7, this installation by Joan Giroux and Lisa Kaftori, invites viewers to imagine stories of individual people, discrete objects, and environments.
One of the walls of the exhibition space is populated by 12 etched brass shelves, on each one of them the audience can find a memory box containing a printed with a photograph of a person known to the artists. Each memory box is accompanied by objects resonant with specific and universal associations: a handwritten letter, a seashell, a magnifying glass, a glass needle. Impressions, imprints, and traces of a Gunter’s (surveyor’s) chain of brass create visual and physical linkages throughout.
The filmic verse chronicles aftermaths of the 2017 Thomas Fire, as the artists walk the landscape in a healing process, furling and unfurling the chain, tracing and marking paths of rescue, loss, healing, and regeneration. Through poetic means, the work connects to and reflects upon the impermanence of life, the power of memory and human connection, and the frailty and vulnerability of our environment in the face of climate change’s “new normals.”
So as to repair, was first exhibited in Chicago, during winter 2019 and then in New York, during Spring 2020.
