I Never Had A Good Relationship With My Mom, So I Manipulated Her Photo To Feel Closer To Her

“Art is not divorced from life. It is dialectic”-David Smith
I was a very introverted child. I have never had a very close relationship with my mother or father. I developed a strong desire to know and understand my mother over the years.

Throughout my unsettled life, my inner self has been longing to know her. On the contrary, my outer self has not been willing to admit. Unfortunately she lives far away in a different country.
Odds are low if we ever have a close relationship because of a geographical distance.

During my last visit, I found one of her old photos I had never seen before. I brought that photograph with me.

Over the months, I felt that photograph was the only thing that would get me close to her. My inner self was attached to this old photograph. I wanted to re-take and change mom’s photograph endlessly.

In this project, I blur boundaries of fiction, reality and nostalgia. I learn more about my mother as this project goes along. Entire project is influenced by Dada. I use found objects, food and various sizes of the photo. Familiar objects are placed in unusual contexts giving new meaning to this photograph. As this project evolves, hidden emotions pop up. The emotions I wasn’t even aware of such as longing, confusion, anger…

In this project, titles are important. They create paradoxes and give clues to viewers about my mother. Every viewer will get variable experience from each image. This project is my inner self’s obsession with past but concerned with notion of memory.

More info: zerenbadar.com