Alex Fuchs, Reaching Out, Cyanotype, 6 x 8 x 8 in, 2022
Artwork Statement:
My practice examines memory, and the pretend ability humans have to hold onto it. Memories, no matter what, will only ever be in fragments. Much like photography, they carry a warped sense of truth. Memories are never the same, they change each time one accesses them. The pieces of memories we carry will always be warped and details missing. Through the use of photography, analog printing, weaving, and bookmaking, I try to untangle the complex interpersonal relationships one has with their family and childhood. Through making pictures, I explore where I exist within my own family, as both an insider and outsider, and how memories are recollections created by one's brain by weaving together experiences and stories. I also ponder the question of how to document something that is no longer there, and how to grapple with something or someone that won't leave.
The manual labor required in my process reflects the emotional turmoil that has inspired my work. The work physically exhausts me while producing it and exhausts the viewer when experiencing it. This exhaustion and emotional labor manifests in my work through the printmaking process as well as the construction of form. I use analog printing methods such as platinum printing, kallitypes, cyanotypes, and screen printing as a cathartic experience. The monotonous act of analog printing is also demonstrated in my weavings. Weaving both archival and contemporary images has allowed me to physically alter the printed image as though it is a memory the viewer is trying to recall. Warped and details missing, the woven photographs give new narratives to the photographs, the physical form of a memory.
Artist Bio:
Alex Fuchs is a mixed media artist working primarily in photography and print media. She graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in December 2022 with a BFA with an emphasis in photography and print media.
She has worked with Mount Sinai's Adolescent Health Center, NYC SALT, and has had work exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, Photoville, Bathhouse Studios, The Art Directors Club, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Alex currently works as a TA in the photography department at Harold Washington College and assistant to Emily Schiffer.