Memory, Reflection and Place:

Work by Audrey Bellinger, Sarah Roche and Carol Royer

October 10th through October 31st, 2010

How do we view the world? When we look at scenes, places and objects,
we view them through the lens of our personal experience. The presence
of people who lived in these spaces and owned these objects in the
past can seem to permeate them. It is through our collective memory
that we come to know the world around us. Audrey Bellinger, Sarah
Roche, and Carol Royer approach the idea of memory and the passage of
time from different vantage points in their work. There is a shared
consideration of history, giving viewers a subtle nudge to contemplate
how layers of time affect one’s perception of the world.

Audrey Bellinger. Matrimony. mixed medium photo emulsion transter. 2007

Audrey Bellinger's work draws on the uneven quality of memory, some
details remaining clear while others slip away. Utilizing printmaking
processes, she layers images of people and places, submerging and
obscuring certain images while repeating others, changing the scale
and perspective within the confines of her canvas. The passage of time
is invoked in deep and shallow spaces, with the focus shifting between
colorfully sharp images, scenes blurred by flooding light, or intimate
black and white moments. Her nonlinear narratives allow entry into
places existing only in memory.

Sarah Roche. Le Printemps. oilon canvas. 2005

Sarah Roche's work as a gallery maintenance supervisor at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art led her to make paintings of the art in the
museum environment that had become familiar to her. Handling artworks
as a part of her everyday experience changed the way she saw them,
both as concrete objects, and as signifiers of history and place. In
her art, we often see the viewer reflected in glass vitrines. The
appearance of the figure is often ephemeral while the art objects
appear fixed, reminding us of the transient nature of existence.

Carol Royer. The Typewriter. oil and encaustic on canvas. 2008

The paintings of Carol Royer depict the geography of her past.
Incorporating family images, symbolic objects and familiar spaces from
her childhood, she portrays a place in her memory considered through
layers of loss, joy and connection. Her work connects to the agency
of memory in every person's life, the collective experience of home,
family, and childhood. Through distinct and unexpected relationships
between images, objects, and figures, she considers how links are
connected or disconnected in the mind, and how memories shape and
distort the past. Her work meditates on what it means to recollect.

(This is a curatorial proposal project)