A surreal photographic undertaking about inherited trauma and postmemory by German artist and photographer Elena Helfrecht (beforehand featured here). Born in Bavaria in 1992, Helfrecht’s apply primarily revolves round phenomena of consciousness, combining particular person experiences with collective historical past. In “Plexus,” Helfrecht embarks on a photographic journey via her household’s property in Bavaria following the loss of life of her grandmother. The black and white pictures of interiors, objects and archives, create an allegorical play. Scenes that at the beginning look seem mundane turn out to be more and more unsettling.
“Within the means of reconnecting the fragmentary historical past of my feminine lineage, the time period ‘re-membering’ turns into literal. Immersing myself into this story, I fill the gaps with goals, associations and imagined scenes to create a story transgressing private and nationwide boundaries. The objects and structure of the home turn out to be parabolic proxies and open a gate between the previous and the current.”
Helfrecht’s photographs symbolically allude to the unreal and imaginary creeping into recollections of non-public and cultural histories. Confronting a previous spanning 4 generations, Helfrecht explores the intersecting and reverberating echoes of psychological well being, warfare and historical past. “Plexus” additionally encompasses a brief story by Canadian author Camilla Grudova. Grudova’s piece, “The Home Surgeon,” is a few disturbing development that silently develops beneath the floorboards of a household residence, drawing additional upon the themes of inherited trauma offered via Helfrecht’s pictures.
See extra photographs from the undertaking, revealed by VOID, under!