The Lining of Forgetting

CTRL+SHFT is pleased to present the lining of forgetting, an exhibition by Holly McHugh and tamara suarez porras. The show explores how objects, particularly connected to family, both hold memory and can be used to imagine new possibilities. Over the course of a month, the artists will be holding three events within the exhibition, we hope you can join us for one or all!

the lining of forgetting, is an exhibition by Holly McHugh and tamara suarez porras. The artists utilize archival photographic material to (re)read, (re)arrange, and (re)imagine personal histories. McHugh reconsiders objects from a late family member's ephemera, like newspaper clippings and snapshots, with mark-making that interweaves absence and presence. Bleaching, rubbing, obscuring of the image evoke ghostly remains and reinterpretations of this archive. suarez porras begins with found photographs and objects as material to redress gaps and untruths within her family history. Contending with the known-unknown identity of her biological father, she adapts a limited archive of objects (letters, photographs, stories) with rearrangements and the speculative. An installation of 24 black-and-white photographs imagines a dialogue between the artist and her father using super 8mm film stills and adapted text from his letters. A performance during the show’s closing explores a conversation between the artist, her mother, and her unknown relatives using fragments of video interviews, existing texts, and photographic material. The title of the show, adapted from Chris Marker’s "Sans Soleil," is a synonym of remembering: to remember is not the opposite of forgetting, Marker says, but rather its lining.