Katie Roach
Growing up with a family member that owns an antique store, living and visiting homes of relatives in contrasting states of clutter and declutter, and experiencing a deep personal loss, I became consumed by how and what we leave behind and a fear of forgetting. Among other experimentations in my interdisciplinary art practice, I interact with topics of grief, consumerism, nature, environmental degradation due to human impact, the occupation of space in life and death, and memory.
Up to this point, a lot of my exploration has been through the experimentation of different motifs and symbols for memory and time passed. Many of my conversations about the memory of people and times lost, lead me to think about the idea of “show and tell,” and how specific sites, objects, and organizations can prompt a memory otherwise tucked away. In Unto You I Bequeath, I thought about what I could potentially leave behind. I selected objects from my own personal collection since 3rd grade and created a symbolic memory of them. In Convergence, I am interested how memories can form in ways that bind together objects and specific sites.
Simultaneously, I am concerned with American consumerism, the way we are taught to upgrade to the latest, how we could potentially interact with objects once they are no longer functional, and how these objects may pollute the earth at the end of their, or our, prospective lifespan. I try to balance my art practice with an acknowledgement to these concerns and the idea that I am creating another object. I wish to be conscious of the ways that my work uses materials that are already destined as waste or are second hand, or through a choice of materials that are biodegradable or recyclable, such as paper pulp.
