The Body has Memory

The Body Has Memory is an introspective series that explores how trauma manifests within the body. The work begins with larger-than-life images depicting fragmented body parts—an intentional motif that threads throughout the series. Fragmentation becomes a metaphor for the healing process: recovery does not happen all at once, but in pieces. Each work seeks to examine and honor a different aspect of this ongoing reconstruction.

Created with large sheets of naturally dyed paper, these initial pieces emphasize materiality and physical presence. Writing played a foundational role in shaping the visual language of the series. Although much of the original text was edited out, fragments of short essays resurface throughout the artist’s book Fragments. Written in the first person, the book plunges the viewer into personal moments of trauma and healing. The nonlinear nature of recovery is reflected in the shifting tone and rhythm of the text, unfolding across a series of French-folded pages bound with a Coptic stitch.

The final series of images further investigates the blurred, sensory experience of trauma and recovery. These illustrations—printed on frosted Mylar—are layered in juxtaposition, evoking moments that linger long after they pass. Surrounding these impressions are collaged anatomical elements—bones and muscles—drawn from photo references and scans of my own body. These visual echoes reinforce the idea that the body holds memory: sometimes silently, sometimes vividly.