My thesis year was rooted in trying to process my identity. Everything I created this year stems from the idea that there is a vast amount of work that happens inside oneself. My story needs to be heard and represents my lived experience. This work is a presentation of the internal struggles of an adoptee. How closure may not be attainable, but acceptance can be reachable. I belong to a community of parents and children that came together through adoption. Another adoptee’s journey may or may not look like mine, but I promise you they are more than just a kid that needed to be saved.
Mawma if I ever did get a chance/A brief idea of a theoretical display.
(roughly 5 feet x 5 feet)
silkscreen, paper cut outs, risograph, relief, lithography and hand drawn elements.
(I invite you to zoom in)
The different places our mind goes when we think about memories. We hyper focus on a thought we put all our energy into that moment that element. But then you take a step back you realize each passing thought was just trying to get you to the next. This is a year's worth of work. A year worth or processing new and old memories and thoughts trying to understand my narrative as an adopted individual.
Click through for close up documentation.
images
Thesis Document: Processing Through Process.
All of my visuals work as a backdrop to this text, they exist collaboratively. When my work was displayed I intended for the audience to stand and read this text. I wanted them to look at the wall and know that even though this was such vibrant art, it was not made without struggle.
Abstract: A supporting document narrated in the first person which deals with topics such as adoption, self-identity, and trauma all pieces in the challenge of trying to understand who you are without a past or history. What are you left with when you have no history? This document discusses loss and the struggles that come along with trying to understand what it means to be adopted. It is a process that never ends. Subtle reminders are constantly surrounding the adoptive community of what we have and what we do not. It should be read with respect; this is a life, not a gift.
Because I don't always have a wall mawma / Thesis document
book digitally printed/ grid paper, clips and coverstock paper - 3 spreads digital
it would have been an edition of 10-15.
click images to enlarge, same text as viewed in the link above
Two days after returning from Colombia
8.5x11" digital print
front
back
My beginnings
cmyk silkscreen digitally printed
9x14"
Exported flower
gif /cut out shapes glued on wood silkscreened passport canvas overlay
Frame 12x16” Fabric 13 ½ x 19”
Self-documentation/ A tropical glow baby was there.
an attempt of trying to see myself in this landscape. Going back to one's home country is often an emotional journey, especially if you do not have any memories of it. I see my reflection in the people what I struggled with was the space. By cutting out space in each image I try to fit myself in.
35mm film transferred into co-polymer plates printed with a blu/grey ink on the vandercook press on off white paper and coloured printer paper sitting behind each print.
edition: 1/1
A series of incomplete completed prints.
trying to make my first home feel like mine mawma.
Varied edition- editions with additions
11x15" silkscreened
the view into the neighbourhood from FANA.
Cundinamarca,
Bogotá
click images below to enlarge
FUNDACIÓN PARA LA ASISTENCIA DE LA NIÑEZ ABANDONADA - FANA
Cra. 96 ##156b-18, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
click images below to enlarge
A familiar landscape in an unfamiliar place, apartment building
Bogota, Colombia
click images below to enlarge
Cartagena , Colombia 2019
Looking into the courtyard at FANA
digital print with text on wood pulp paper, hand cut shapes overlay
14x17"
The view from a cab, Cartagena
digital print with text on wood pulp paper, hand cut shapes underlay
14x17"
A conversation with mawma.
I can not watch each page go by slowly I only know how to flip through it and get to the end mawma
handbound book includes nine texts written to mawma dealing with a range in topics about life as an adoptee.
medium: tape, pink text silkscreened on vellum, risograph image spreads with silkscreen on top and 100% cotton silkscreened linework.
presented as a GIF- 6 x 7” Depth: ½” open: 54” Pages: 10
edition : 1/1
Take away/ An empty conversation
blue risograph on off white paper
This zine is for viewers to take with them after viewing my work. Much of my process of processing is repeated motions. It's taking the same elements but presenting them a different way.
My conversation with mawma is my conversation to keep. This one is open, not loaded with questions I am not ready to answer.
Each shape is waiting to be engaged with.
it would have been an edition of 200.
Isabel Diana / 2020