About

Experimenting with early photography, installation, and film, this exhibition invites you to consider the intimate relationship between memory, materiality, and migration.  

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Inspired by Paul Virilio's The Vision Machine, we may consider the process of image-making as a suggestive practice that evokes a fleeting impression of a time or place. Virillio writes, “the main aim of the heliographic plate is to capture signals transmitted by the alternation of light and shade, day and night, good weather and bad.”

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Multimedia artist, Trina Michelle Robinson, combines digital and sculptural practices to interrogate her personal archive and evoke an intimate sense of being with a moment. As a deeply process-driven artist, Robinson considers the sensory and textural significance behind her mediums and calls upon the place from which her materials are sourced.  Robinson places special importance on recreating many of the objects that might have once been touched by her ancestors.

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For this exhibition, Robinson has included intaglio prints related to her ancestors' forced migration from West Africa, their survival during enslavement in Kentucky, and eventual migration north and west. Robinson further draws on the spiritual tradition of altar-building to create a multimedia installation that provides access into her devotional practice. The paper, made from raw cotton, the terracotta clay of a bowl, and the locally sourced wax of a candle all support Robinson’s exploration of self across time.

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