This body of work is titled ‘gone’ and is an exploration of the feelings of dissociation visually. The feelings of dissociation are extremely hard to describe or put into words, but is also something that I’ve always personally wanted to be able to explain to those who don’t experience it. I wanted to create a piece of work that would portray the emotions (or lack thereof) that I feel when I dissociate, while also allowing the viewer to experience them themselves.
The photos included in the book are both multiple exposure and long exposure, creating a blend of features and body parts that are hard to discern from each other. The words throughout are a combination of studies on and descriptions of the feelings of dissociation and explanations from strangers who wrote to me their own experiences. The book itself is printed on tracing paper, which allows the images to bleed into each other and create cloudy and blurred pages. The binding of the book is done in the style of exposed spine binding, allowing the string holding the book together to become frayed and tangled as viewers read through it. The idea is that as viewers experience the book, the book will slowly disintegrate and become more illegible, much like how one can feel when dissociating.
The book itself is an experience that prompts the viewer to take a peek into what it can be like to dissociate and also hear stories from those who have. It also allows those who have or do dissociate to find comfort in someone who is attempting to put into visuals something which cannot be described easily. My hope is that viewers will think about their experience of reading ‘gone’ long afterwards and shine more light on something that many people experience alone.
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Images from the 'gone' series:
