Histories: Lived, Learned, and inherited is the third and final exhibition (Bristol Community College, Fall River) in our ongoing series of shows that examine the ways we reflect on the past, the ways we connect and associate the lived experience with our understandings of history, of loss, and of change. The exhibition features the work of Michelle Brown, Talin Megherian, and Stephanie Roberts-Camello.
History is the culmination of past experiences. We can understand this broadly as the linear expression of events through time. When we are born, we enter into that timeline afresh, or so it would seem. It takes a while for us to learn that our relationships to history are shaped by a myriad of dynamisms largely outside of our control. Gender, culture, socioeconomics, geography, and religious affiliation are among the many forces that help to define our perceptions.
Michelle Brown refers to her work as tablets or storyboards. Her work is often presented in diptych form and symbolizes many ways of thinking about access to information. Although her work “reads” like an open book or a sequential narrative, the images are inspired by a number of sources and are meant to be seen either in linear time or as a series of interrelated images in which access can take on many forms.
Talin Megherian’s imagery gives voice to her Armenian heritage. She grew up with stories of the Armenian genocide and the atrocities that were inflicted upon a people. Her father, an infant during the Armenian Diaspora, was almost left behind because of the difficulty of traveling on foot with a baby, but his grandmother refused and fed him chewed up grass to keep him alive. Talin’s three series, Wells, Braids, and Khatchkars all pull from family stories and documents written during the Armenian genocide.
Stephanie Roberts-Camello’s work is a response to transgenerational stories about her family history. The discovery of a box of family letters unveiled a time of suffering and loss during the Great Depression and the dust bowl days of Texas. Cowboys and farmers wrote of growing wheat and raising cattle during long droughts and dust storms that people had to endure in hopes for better days ahead. Using encaustic as her medium in relief form, Stephanie layers wax over old letters or eco prints of nature creating a visual and metaphoric stratum of time.
Photo courtesy: Bristol Community College
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