DAEMON & SAUDADE

Colleen Schindler-Lynch

July 2 - August 27, 2022

Reception July 29, 2022 during ARTcrawl

The work in this exhibition explores grief, loss and preservation through a series of photographs, sculptural garments and items of adornment as memento mori that reveal both the beauty and pain of emotion. The intangibility of stories and memories has been translated into objects and given a tactile presence that details intimate accounts and ephemeral events such as conversations and recollections.

Photographs recreate the look of historical tintype images and the distressed edges of glass negatives but at a scale impossible to achieve with the original techniques. They recall a time of slow documentation and close inspection — a time when images were precious objects.

A series of dress forms display a collection of worn sculptures that fuse textiles with art and use the body as a dimensional canvas. They speak about wearing your narrative and a daily routine of camouflage and façade while carrying on and coping with grief and trauma.

Collectively this work captures and preserves the marks left on us by the experiences we live. Whether the loss of a loved one or a relationship, grief is a condition, a state, and a process we all share. 

Daemon indicates something going on behind the scenes; today, it typically refers to a computer program that is running in the background and is beyond the user’s control. In language, we have many phrases that speak to the same idea. Expressions such as more than meets the eye or read between the lines allude to the same concept — a subtext that is meant to be understood but not stated.

Saudade is one of those words that is just missing from the English language — words that convey a complexity of meaning and sentiment. It refers to the love that remains after someone is gone. It encompasses feelings and experiences, emptiness and absence, nostalgia and melancholy. It is an emotional state that brings both sad and happy feelings together.