Looking Back

By Elly Heise

Memories are often augmented by our own imaginations or simply by the time that has elapsed between then and now. Sometimes navigating the spaces these memories are stored can be difficult, as some are buried deep within the tunnels of our minds or fused with other occurrences. Looking Back plays with this premise as it explores four intersecting realms.

Influenced by famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, Looking Back considers his theory on imaginative memory. Sacks expressed that imaginative memory can be understood as a subconscious process where our minds fill in memory gaps in the absence of external verification. Heise’s reimagination and navigation of her own family archives demonstrates this theory.

Looking Back also flirts with spatial engagement and the interpretation of surrealist realms. It explores spaces somewhere between the psychological and the corporeal, a membrane between the physical world and the imaginative. These intersecting realms structure the show, asking us to reflect on the spaces where our memories and extensions of ourselves reside.