Collect and recollect. We frequently find ourselves in this idiosyncratic cycle of sifting, selecting, molding, conjuring and suppressing our memory. Featuring new works by HATCH residents Breanna Robinson and Mariel Harari, re(collect) presents two similar but distinct approaches to making sense of these vestiges of the past that we hold dear, have dreamed of, or that emerge out of the blue.

Experimenting heavily with materials, Harari uses alganyl biotextile, embroidery, collages, painted fabrics to painstakingly hand-make delicate sculptures that embrace imperfection. Materials are also treated metaphorically. From opaque to translucent, it is memory at its various states. The body of work encapsulates memories that disrupt, alarm or convolute, but also ones that soothe and comfort. Solidify these moments into objects is a strategy to ground oneself and to heal.

Robinson, on the other hand, showcases a multimedial assemblage of works that include prints, ceramics, webcam filter, found and fabricated objects. She examines how certain processes of image making is akin to depicting memory or dreams. Symbols and memorabilia significant to her individual and family histories are gone through stages of reproduction and configuration—both digital and analogous, until they become indiscernibly abstract, and nebulous.

What we remember forms who we are. To coexist with this wild beast of memory and to try to understand it is to stay curious, courageous and serendipitous. This exhibition, structured upon explorations of the artists’ most intimate and vulnerable niches, proposes the idea of forming a collection of selves, with their shadows and specters of which we sometimes recollect, sometimes prefer not to.