Fine Art Photography School of Fine Art
Tatiana Kaga
I have recently become interested in how embodied experiences of a particular place and time can serve as a methodology to explore individual subjectivity and sensibilities and the historical, political, and social contexts surrounding these experiences.
My focus has centred on themes such as immigration, displacement, memory, memorabilia, and the archive, using them as tools to understand generational trauma and post-memory while navigating my own feelings of displacement. Family plays a central role in my practice, acting as a lens through which I examine the consequences of diaspora, most notably the experiences of my relatives who immigrated from Japan to Brazil, and create dialogues between the past and present.
I often return to crafts, a practice deeply connected to my family heritage, while working across archival photography and sculpture. This exploration allows me to engage with the materiality of preserving memory and its role in my artistic practice.
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somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience
There is a Brazilian expression that says “o bom filho a casa torna”, which translates to “the good son returns home”. It means to revist something previously done or to revisit a place one has already been. This is what this work is about, it is about return.
“in a place of memory that I did not have, of an event I did not witness, my memory worked over someone else’s story.”1 This is where I find myself – weaving together the stories of my family with my own, blending their shared and untold experiences with mine.
Ingrained in the memory, in the archive, the process of remembering, repeating, and returning reconstructs an observation of the past and present – of time and the interplay of different times.
I stumbled upon the works of e.e. cummings a year ago, particularly the poem somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond. Although it
seems to be an ode to a potential romantic partner, it is nonetheless a proclamation of love for a cherished one. Between verses lies a depth of meaning that has influenced this project, which is a visual exploration of displaced people and, in many ways, a dedication to my family. The components of this work, both conceptually and formally, are inspired by the beautiful words of cummings.
Family – a displaced family – plays a central role here, informing my decisions conceptually, formally, and most of all, emotionally.
I am returning to something that has been lingering and to somewhere that I have never travelled.
1 Stepanova, Maria, In Memory of Memory, trans. by Sasha Dugdale (Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2021), p. 29.
