Elizabeth Kelly

Fragments

An Immersive Installation Piece by Elizabeth Kelly 

Mixed Media Immersive Installation

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Including photographic works on paper, sculptural works, audio, and video

     "Fragments” is an immersive installa­tion piece that is a contemporary reconstruction of my family’s personal history. Images, film, objects, and audio dating from the 1920’s-1990’s are combined and manipulated to create a distorted version of a home. Alteration is present in every aspect of the work, sometimes major and sometimes indistinguishable. Through this work, the viewer can envision the shifting and passing of memory over lifetimes and generations. The utili­zation of my grandfather’s photographs not only connects me to my own past but tells a story of the small town south and my journey to create a life away from that singular experience.

     This body of work is my first self-reflective work in over 5 years, brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and my relocation out of Arkansas where I had been living for 10 years before moving to Philadelphia. Because the bulk of my recent work has been community and subject-focused, I felt that the pandemic and my relocation present­ed an obstacle for true connection and opportunity to collaborate with a new community here in Philadelphia. This combined with the passing of my grandmother in 2019, which provided me with a rich film archive, birthed the project as it is now seen today. Though self-reflective work does not make up much of my practice, I believe that “Fragments” communicates with my other works by connecting the viewer to the past, the small town south, and my perspective as an artist.