To Contact the artist:
Chelsea@chelseamargaret.com
Statement:
I’ve been a collector of other peoples’ memories for about fifteen years now.
I’ve found myself digging through musty boxes, harvesting from estate sales, and plucking from the streets a considerable amount of experiences that aren’t directly my own. It’s from these found objects, and the people who once owned them that I derive my inspiration.
Currently, I am primarily using my findings from estate sales. These events have never failed to intrigue me, because they so directly give a face to the business of death, the sorting and dispersing of personal effects. I am something of a rare creature, in the sense that I’ve never lost anyone close to me. Without this direct brush with mortality, I believe I am almost overly sensitive to the idea of legacy, and the significance of what one does or does not leave behind when they pass away. Nearly everything becomes sacred to me.
Among other things, I’ve unearthed handmade scrapbooks filled with cut out articles about how to deal with early widowhood, a child’s book of favorites, ridden with scribbles, pictures, and fingerprints. Entire photo albums, complete with labels and family portraits, up for grabs at the sale. How could these be of no importance to someone? I almost feel voyeuristic to have these relics in my possession. But then again, if I don’t treasure them, who will?
From these findings, I’ve begun to make pieces that are something of a homage to the person who once housed them.
Reliquaries for memories that don’t belong to me.
Through these pieces, I hope to address the ideas of legacy, and question the importance of what remains behind when we pass on. Are we nothing but the memories we have and make? Or do our possessions tell the story for us?