Altar to Memory

Since moving to Chicago, I have found myself increasingly receptive to sights, smells, and sensations that evoke nostalgia. This hypersensitivity boiled down to amusement at the human notion of attributing ownership and of sentimentality upon nature’s steadfast presence.

Through water as subject, my altar pays homage to the memories of youth that flow with decreasing clarity through my mind. Across a brown piece of paper measuring 105 inches, fifteen cartographic views are represented in permanent ink and painted with Petroleum Jelly. The trail begins with Lake Michigan, traces back through locations that hold significance to me - The great Lakes, Lake Ontario, Lower Saint-Lawrence River, Cornwall, Le Haut de la Rivière Saint-Laurent, Montréal Sud, Laval, le drôle de ‘tit lac sans nom, Lac McGill, Lac des Sables, Rivière Papineau, Lac Montagne Noir, and ends, finally, at Le Baie Leguerrier on Lac Ouareau, the campsite where I spent my summers until the age of fifteen. On a second, narrower scroll of paper, the names of each body of water are written in water-soluble ink. Both scrolls were rolled up, bound with cord and placed in a mason jar with water collected from Ohio Street Beach (Lake Michigan). The drawings float in the same water that flows inversely from Lac Ouareau, South, across the Saint-Lawrence River, and into the Great Lakes. The various inks and surfaces will disintegrate at different rates in relation to the physical permanence in nature of the ideas they represent; first titles, then borders, then land. An old shipping crate poses as pedestal to symbolize travel across unconventional, non-urban terrain.

Creating this altar opened a floodgate of past smiles and sunsets, yet helped me better distinguish romanticizing from reminiscing.

[detail: Saint-Lawrence River]

[detail: Lac McGill]

[detail: Lac Ouareau]