Every family appears ordinary to outsiders looking in, but beneath that exterior lives a mythical world full of stories kept secret in our memories. We share stories of life experiences with our family especially when they seem unreal to us. It is when life becomes stranger than fiction that the world of mystery begins to form. If anyone outside the family could see this world, they would never understand. But as part of the family, we embrace this world and the people in it. Who these people are and what has happened to them can only exist through us - in our memories.
My grandfather became a guerilla in the army to protect his country and his name. My great grandmother fought a rogue rat with the might of a warrior. My father befriended a pig that stuck by him through thick and thin. A dog chain snapped off its post and wrapped around my mothers neck, strangling her behind the running dog. My brother had a wild encounter with a circus monkey. My uncle identified as a fuzzy wuzzy bear named Buzzy. A gang of jellyfish ambushed my aunt's fun day at sea.
My representation of the mythical memory world is captured in the images of these family stories. As the voice for my family, I take on the task of presenting the ordinary people and then stepping through the exterior into a scene of their memories. In every character there is an issue of identity, exposure, fear, survival, pain, love and companionship. The issues are all ordinary as well, but they manifest themselves in an extraordinary way in the context of the mythical world of memories.