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Cast in transparent crystal, a dozen antique purses hang delicately on the wall. They are apparitions of objects called forth from a previous time. Each translucent handbag belies its original function: revealing instead of concealing. Privacy is denied, allowing personal experience to become shared.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia artist, Jen Blazina makes memory tangible. Recreating family heirlooms in glass, she orchestrates intricate installations that illuminate the fragility (and mutability) of remembrance. In her work, the relationship between collecting and recollecting is literally made clear.<\/p>\n

Highly contrasted family photographs, simplified to black and white graphics, are printed on large glass panels. They function simultaneously as windows and doors. Looking through the abstracted images is peering from past to present, where as much is obscured as revealed. The artist\u2019s intervention, here through silkscreen, preserves a memory while irrevocably altering it. In each generation of retelling, these shared stories translate with less clarity.<\/p>\n

In \u2018Ephemera,\u2019 rows of eighty pocket watches are silently suspended. Traditional mechanisms for keeping time are removed; cameo portraits replace the hands of the clock with silhouetted faces. \u2018Ephemera\u2019 is based on the artist\u2019s experience of finding her grandfather\u2019s timepiece after his passing. Encapsulating memories of people within the things they\u2019ve touched is one way of holding on to them; it is the very idea of \u2018keep-sake,\u2019 familial relics that can be passed down through generations.<\/p>\n

Cherishing these innate objects, we invite a ghostly inhabitance. Jen Blazina\u2019s recent work reveals that these beautiful specters are ultimately of our own creation. Or to quote another distant voice: it was Emily Dickinson who so aptly wrote, \u201cone need not be a chamber to be haunted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please click on the thumbnails below to enter the galler<\/em>y.<\/p>\n

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