“Libation“
Growing up between Indiana and Louisiana, my family has had a great reverence for telling stories over a cup of coffee. These daily sessions often lead us to the rice fields of the American South, to houses full of laughter in the Midwest and to those we miss dearly. It is a ritual that allows us to keep our history alive while also processing its mangled trajectories. Grief has been a complicated hand-me-down that each generation must decide to either keep precious or unlearn. As more of my elders pass away, these daily practices become fewer, as the stories are buried with them.
Libation is a photographic dirge that uses archival and contemporary images to devise visitations with people and places that no longer exist. This project creates a portal for my ancestors and I to communicate either for the first time or again. They peek through to express anxieties, frustrations, curiosities, and encouragements that their larger-than-life personalities embodied when they were alive. Through the process of cyanotype toning, this work is a ceremony that remembers, greets and mourns. Various materials such as coffee, tea, and wine gives the prints a somber tone compared to the normal Prussian blue of a cyanotype. Creating this work gives me a physical space to hold my photographic hand-me-downs, find peace with process of death and pass on my familial folklore. It allows me to travel to a time when my familial bonds were strong and our history flowed like the libations we once poured.
Victoria J. Ridgway is an artist, poet and educator based in central
Indiana. Her work, which has been recognized by Center Santa Fe, Manifest Gallery, The Tokyo International Foto Awards and The Houston Center of Photography, focuses on manifestations of trauma, photographic haptics, and Fat representation. She received her BFA from McNeese State University and MFA from Indiana University – Bloomington. She is a Limited Term Lecturer of Photography at Purdue University.
To Learn More About the Artist and Her Work:
website : www.victoriajridgway.com
Instagram : @mynameisnotveronica
