Kitchen, installation documentation, 2000
The installation consists of a replica 1950's kitchen, live performer, and projected video.The kitchen and performer are in the tones of a black and white photograph. Only the projected video 'view' out the window is in full color.
Using the structure of the kitchen as a focal point, I created this work to facilitate an exploration of gender, seeking to understand how it functioned for the women of my family in earlier generations. I was drawn to focus on the subject through a broader interest in a lingering sort of inherited memory built of the spoken and unspoken yet shaping events in our family histories. I was especially interested in the way history is treated with a veneer, smoothing out its complications.