
When migrating into a new culture as an individual or group, an attempt at assimilation occurs where the drive to integrate creates space for a reinterpretation of the cultural identity. For Jimmy Frezza, a first-generation child immigrant, this blending and adaptation of a new identity was both transformative and fragmenting. The subconscious is stimulated by an attempt to unify fragments of both memory and perception of self and others. The personal experiences and observations, intertwine with popular media and other cultural databases, generating experiential patterns. In this process, the liminal body is born: an entity that exists neither here nor there.
Jimmy’s exhibition is the expression of this liminal body in a state of synesthesia. It conveys a sensation of detachment, a reflection of the internal dialogue that occurs when we process moments in time. The incorporation of repetition in elements of shape, color, and figures creates a rhythm of movement and oscillation. Slight variations in form occur as a reflection of the natural state of mimesis, where imitation is not based on exactness but on evolving interpretation. By utilizing these elements, the visual space becomes suspended in time, and the fragmentation of the past/present/future takes place. As viewers, our eyes wander through the patterns, repetitions, and representations that encourage us to find alternate paths through the images, inviting us to disassemble and reconstruct potential narratives for our external world. His work is a call to look inward, take ownership, and disarm what lies within us that causes anguish and confusion.