Vestiges, Van Dyke diptychs, 9″x7″ individual prints, 2010
Vestiges uses the image of a keyhole as a metaphor to create a juxtaposition of the spaces both in between and beyond. This body of work was first made in 2010 to examine self-imposed limitations created as the result of social anxiety. What experiences was my anxiety preventing me from engaging in? Where was I finding myself as a result? How could I over come such restrictions? Was I even ready to?
The images were shot in and around homes belonging to relatives where I felt safest. However, after the death of my grandmother in late 2014, I revisited this project. Finding that the images no longer showed me remnants of past anxieties, I instead saw traces of my grandmother – the smell of tangerines as she wandered through my uncle’s garden, dust bunnies stirring as she rearranged furniture during the hottest time of the day, the bed under which she’d store all her Christmas decorations. Vestiges now represents the areas where my grandmother memory lingers and where I can go to look for her in quiet moments.
Ualani Davis 