Sense of Place
Sheinberg Gallery, Memphis TN
August 2015
“I did not grow up with what I considered racial prejudice. On the other hand I grew up with an acceptance of the way things were, that was just the way things were, you just don't understand how to question that until you become older." (Community member quoted on exhibition wall)
Over 80 people in ten workshops with ages ranging between 13 and 85 took part in this project. In each workshop participants began by marking the routes of their daily life on a Memphis map. They were then asked to use colored tapes and papers to convey their feelings and thoughts towards their own places and circumference in the city as well as to the places and areas that are not part of their lives.
The patterns that arose from the workshops show a Jewish community that is colorful, intricate and complex, filled with joy and details. This stood in contrast to the relationship towards the surrounding places and communities of the city, which were displayed with a narrower pallet of colors, less detail and in many cases crossed out.
Using the surfaces participants created on the maps, extracting patterns and colors, the intricate story of the Jewish community is portrayed alongside its contemporary relationship to the city itself and the other communities with in it. This exhibition is a reflection of the encounter between me, the outsider, and the Jewish community of Memphis.
The exhibition consists of four pieces.
This is us
Prints of 70 maps created during the workshops, giving an overall look at the way the community portrayed itself in this project.
Intricate cities
Paper cuttings of map extractions organized and marked according to age groups.
Discarded
Wall sculpture created from the parts of the city that were marked as being outside of their circumference and a collection of the refolded "leftover" maps.
Visual Data
Maps, information and color coding