Mark Allen Soderstrom

Re(a)semblance

Our family histories are constructed of memories and personal artifacts woven into a quilt of understanding, unique to each and every one of us.

 

My mother is the only child of immigrant parents, both of whom have now passed on. My father is the only surviving child of parents whose previous three generations each took a leg of the cross-continental journey after emigrating from Sweden. My distant family ties have been severed and what I know of past generations has been largely lost to time, relocation, and fading memories.

 

The genesis of this series is an old box of family photos and correspondence my father presented to me two years previous. I didn't know who the people in these photographs were, who wrote the letters, or if we were truly related. Nor did my father share any information regarding this. It’s difficult to simply discard such artifacts, but without the historical knowledge of social and family ties, where is the value of retaining them?

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These constructions are tangible meditations on those thoughts. They weave together aesthetic swatches of what I believe, or would like to believe, my history to be. Photographs are threaded together with antiquated messages, patched with bits of paper, and designed by intuition. Like most of human history, what they reflect is a piecemeal understanding of my own heritage.

Name Association, 2003, 16" x 33"

Respected Member

16" x 25"

Commemoration

16" x 22"

Bilingual

14" x 14"

Piecemeal

14" x 14"

Mathilda

14" x 14"

Sandoval

6" x 6"

Culled

6" x 6"

Broager

6" x 6"

Summer House

6" x 6"

Mothers Day

6" x 26"

Just Cause You Feel It

6" x 6"

Ishpeming

6" x 6"

Trajectory

9" x 6"

Remainder

9" x 22"

In Passing

6" x 6"

Settled

9" x 28"

Weaverville

14" x 5"

Expo

16" x 33"

The Charming Boarder

14" x 5"

Spine

14" x 14"

Crossing Paths

20" x 20"

Distance Formula

14" x 14"

Starting to Call it Home

9" x 28"

Hilmar

6" x 6"

Charlotte

14" x 5"

Amen

16" x 5"

Patterson

14" x 5"

Expectations

14" x 5"

Pilot

14" x 14"

Your Innocent Sister

14" x 14"

Gesture Collection

14" x 14"

Impressionists

6" x 6"

Lost and Found

9" x 28"

Tandem

20" x 20"

Name Association, 2003, 16" x 33"

The Correspondence Years

12" x 10"

Mentors

20" x 28"

Contemporary art artist UNC Chapel Hill Durham Raleigh North Carolina RTP Conceptual Sculpture Drawing Painting Skeptic Mythology Belief Comparative beliefs religion cinematography movies timelines Golden Belt Ackland Nasher Duke North Carolina State NCCCA Wetherspoon Black Mountain Ashland Greensboro Winston Salem Eureka Humboldt Arcata Oakland California Mills College Humboldt State University College of the Redwoods 

Contemporary art artist UNC Chapel Hill Durham Raleigh North Carolina RTP Conceptual Sculpture Drawing Painting Skeptic Mythology Comparative beliefs religion cinematography movies timelines Golden Belt Ackland Art Museum Nasher Duke North Carolina State NCCCA Wetherspoon Black Mountain Ashland Greensboro Winston Salem Eureka Humboldt Arcata Oakland California Mills College Humboldt State University College of the Redwoods Casablanca 1943 Carrack Modern NCARTS ARTS NC Haines CAM Raleigh SCCA NCMA Nashersculpturecenter NC Art Museum Artcyclopedia Art-collecting UNCG Greensboro SECCA NCCSC Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Catherine Clark Gallery Joe Philadelphia Museum of Jurassic Technology Lien Truong Modesto Junior College Osher Lifelong Learning Institute SFMOMA Cabinet Magazine Rob Cragie 21C Hotel and Museum Thomas Doyle TJ Doyle Jordine Voight SEAN FLETCHER & ISABEL REICHERT ROB CRAIGIE CABINET MAGAZINE GAIL WIGHT HEATHER GORDON INFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL LAURA SPLAN LEE WALTON 99% INVISIBLE AGNES DENES JANET CARDIFF & GEORGE BURES MILLER SKEPTIC'S DICTIONARY ILYA & EMILIA KABAKOV JORDINE VOIGT