A Joining of Self, Suella Holland

A Joining of Self is a site-specific portrait of fragmented childhood recollections of abuse, incorporating memories of different fabrics, dissociative experiences and phrases of manipulation that were used to threaten and enforce secrecy. Using photography to document, Holland pushes her boundaries by exploring a home identical to her childhood residence. By stitching phrases that were said to silence her onto familiar fabrics—some of which were recreated from family album images—and by choosing to record these memories on film using the abuser’s twin lens reflex camera, Holland confronts her inner struggles and transforms her emotions and recollections into visual expression. Long withheld memories are subtly exposed and hint at and communicate the unsaid. A reclamation of power, A Joining of Self comes face to face with Holland’s past and ultimately breaks a silence that has been kept for forty years.

suellaholland.com

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Published by PhotoIreland
Edition of 200
Softcover
32 pages
148 × 210 mm