That You'll be There: An Experiential Archive
Summer Lynn Moore, MFA 2022, Glass
How do we remember things, events, people, and pivotal moments of our lives? Most humans attempt to hold on by collecting items relating to the moment things as photographs, videos, and objects. These items are resources for genealogical and cultural histories, but what do they actually teach us about the phenomenology of memory itself? As a person without these objects, I feel the loss of historical identity and relationships that their absence symbolizes, and seek to create a new legacy through my work. I documented moments of intimacy by recording emotional touch, archiving conversations about rituals of memory, and preserving gestures, written notes, and phrases, during a two-year span while in grad school with platonic intimate relationships. Working with glass, sound, and other media, I investigate the tensions created between transience and permanence, the delicate and durable, and morality and immorality. This inherently emotional undertaking will become my material mementos, and give voice to my history, the development of my core identity, and the empathetic connections we build via shared difficulties, recoveries, and newfound happiness.
"Touch: Cassandra" Cast glass, wood, plaster, paint, gold foil 13 in x 6 9/16 in x 16 Photo credit: Neighboring States
"Touch: Katie" Cast glass, wood, plaster, paint, gold foil 13” x 6 9/16” x 16” Photo credit: Neighboring States
Photo credit: Neighboring States.
Installation view. Photo credit: Neighboring States.
"Remnants of Letters" Glass, ink, paint. 10” x 10”, dimensions variable. Photo credit: Neighboring States.
"Endearment of Body Language," (still) Silent video, 2:29:47. Photo credit: Neighboring States
"How We Remember" and "Touches," Installation view. Photo credit: Neighboring States.
Photo credit: Neighboring States.
Summer Lynn Moore
Instagram: @smoore1812
Summer Lynn Moore is a dedicated artist, educator, and collaborator. How do we remember treasured moments, milestones, people, and decisions that have influenced the course of our lives? Human beings hold an intrinsic method of memorialization through material mementos like photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and videos. These legacy didactics, or personal archives, have long been used as resources for researching our genealogical and cultural histories—but what do they teach us about the phenomenology of remembrance itself? Working with glass, sound, and other media, sculptor Summer Lynn Moore investigates the tension between the duality of transience and permanence, the delicate and durable, and mortality and immortality. She earned her BFA in Glass and BS in art education from Ball State University and earned her Glass MFA at Tyler School of Art and Architecture on a University Fellowship. She has been awarded scholarships to the Pittsburgh Glass Center and the Toledo Museum of Art. Summer's work has been shown in locations including, Philadelphia, PA, Wroclaw, Poland, and Indiana.