HIRAH PARK

purges and yours

2016

The act of purging (throwing up) is often gruesome and taxing, but it is necessary for the body to be internally relieved. My process is the mental purging of personal memories, thoughts, and contemplations that have yet to undergo conflict-resolution. People have different practices of "voicing their thoughts" which is seen through various means, such as diaristic writing, visual mediums, and art-making. In Egypt's Tahrir Square outside of the American University of Cairo, there stands a wall on Mohamed Mahmoud Street full of examples of this process. It displays protest graffiti and painted murals by the Egyptian people as a response to the ongoing revolution since November 2011. Cairo's governorate authorities have repeatedly erased these walls, yet the people continue to resurrect their murals as their "visual voice" to emphasize the truth of their experience as a part of history that should be remembered.

In the constant return to specific memories, one is susceptible to fabricating it with mental edits (additions, deletions, and reordering). Furthermore, no one is immune to being shaped by their environment. These themes are important for me to acknowledge as I continue to draw on personal memories that are condensed into diaristic writings for the source of my works. If memories are susceptible to fabrication and people to the flux of the environment, what are the sources of the construction of one's identity? "What have you gone through", and "where do you come from"... does that matter? I am interested in the "limbo" zone- the work's vulnerability in standing before the viewer while coming from an emotionally charged context.