Terry Boddie: The Residue of Memory

Selections from The Residue of MemoryTerry Boddie

September 21 – November 10, 2013

The Residue of Memory. These images

represent the exploration of ideas regarding place, history,

memory, migration, exile, birth and rebirth. They trace the

development of these ideas over a period of 15 years.

As you look at the images you will notice the development

of the ideas in the images themselves. As the images

go through these various states of transformation they

accumulate technical processes, iconographies and

narratives. Africa, The Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean,

North America, Space, Time are all points of departure.

Alternative photographic processes, such as cyanotype,

Platnium Palladium, Liquid Light, gum bichromate in

combination with traditional materials such as pastels,

oil stick, graphite, ink; and more recent processes such

as digital photo transfer all combine to create a unique

visual iconography.

– Terry Boddie

Terry Boddie spent his boyhood on the island of Nevis

in the West Indies and migrated to the US at age 15. When

he returned “home” 16 years later as a young adult the

impact of coming of age in two very different worlds began

to seep into his awareness and became the watershed of

his work to date: an exploration of memory, migration, myth

and idenity.

Boddie is a photographer, mixed media artist, printmaker,

book maker, kite maker - more precisely visionary. While

skilled and versed in traditional methods of these genres

he is constantly pushing the envelope to achieve his

desired result. “What I do is essentially utilize the entire

history of photography. I use…’alternative processes’ …

developed in the 1800’s, all the way up to digital techniques.

Whatever the idea requires is what I use.” This willingness

to experiment has lead to the unique qualities of his images

– complex in composition, both fragmented and layered,

literally and conceptually.

Boddie’s images are beyond mere photographs with their

ability to “mythologize” memory. Through his careful use of

the juxtposition of images and media he is able to invite us

to think about other ways of understanding deeply

contradictory truths and to consider where our own role in

the shaping of identity and collective history lies.

continued on page 26

Selections from“The Residue of Memory”

Maze2009

Gelatin silver emulsion, oilstick on paper

18X24 inches

Time and Place 12009

Gelatin silver emulsion, digital transfer on paper

24X17 inches

Time and Place 2 2009

Gelatin silver emulsion, digital transfer on paper

24X17 inches

Conduit2008

Gelatin silver emulsion, pastel on paper

22X30 inches

Conduit 22008

Gelatin silver emulsion, pastel, digital transfer on paper

30X22 inches

Crypt2000

Gelatin silver emulsion, oilstick, soil on paper

30X45 inches

Crypt (study)2000

Gelatin silver emulsion, pasel on paper

17X24 inches

Dark Days1999

Gelatin silver emulsion, acrylic, charcoal on paper

14X17 inches

Elementary2007

Cyanotype, gelatin silver emulsion on paper

10.5X11

Fly Away Home2008

Gelatin silver emulsion on paper

24X17 inches

Journey2000

Gelatin silver emulsion, oilstick, pastel on paper

30X22 inches

Pulse2007

Cyanotype emulsion, digital transfer on mylar

18X24 inches

Real Estate2001


9X11.5 inches

Rehearsal2007

Gelatin silver emulsion, charcoal, digital transfer on paper

17X24 inches

Routes2000

Gelatin silver emulsion, oilstick, digital transfer on paper

29.5X34 inches

Spirit House 21999


24X17 inches

The Long Way Home 12009

Gelatin silver emulsion, pastel, digital transfer on paper

22X30 inches

The Return 12007

Gelatin silver emulsion, oilstick on paper

30X22 inches

Tomb2010

Pigmented paper pulp

22X28 inches

Traveler2012

Cyanotype emulsion, raw mica pigment on paper

13X17 inches

Utterance2009

Gelatin silver emulsion, chalk, pastel on paper

30X22 inches

Village Project2000


30X45 inches

continued from page 4

These works intimately explore his personal relationship to:

Place and how it shapes us. There is an “old tradition in the

Caribbean of planting a tree on top of where your umbilical

cord is buried…I’m still very connected to that place…[still]

there’s this sense that you don’t quite belong in either place.”

History utilizing icons of Caribbean cultural legacy –

currency, stamps, plantation records and historical records

to challenge colonial “truth” verses both factual and

experiencial truth.

Memory and the origin of language, our ‘genetic

relationship’ to iconography and the plasticity of relationship

to frozen moments in time through re-referencing.

Migration not only from geographical place to place but

through our internal space traversing our grasp of our

individual and collective sense of idenity.

Exile pointing us towards transition through recognition of

the impact of ‘partial’ and ‘marginalized’ truth as it sheds

light on the inevitable Death of demoralizing historical

mistruths’ by deflating it’s glorifing icons with the imagery

he counteracts it with.

And finally Rebirth – the promise of a more intergrated and

aware idenity.

– Mary Z

Inquiries:

Please contact 73 See Gallery at 973.746.8737 or email us

at [email protected]. Thank you.

Catalog design: Mary Z, 73 See Gallery & Design Studio

73 Pine Street, Suite CMontclair, NJ 07042

[email protected]

www.73seegallery.com

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Hours: Regularly Noon til 6or by appointment. Closed Mondays.

Terry Boddie: The Residue of Memory

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