Aarin Wilson
Formal and thematic displacement is a common feature of my works. My fragmented compositions are intended to emphasize human connection, isolation, illness and “socially acceptable” coping mechanisms. In each piece, I tell a story, carefully curating collage-based representations connected to memories over time, visual metaphors of amplified feelings and situations drawn from mental snapshots of impressionable moments. I build worlds pieced together by old family photographs combined with image clippings from magazines. I want the bold choices of imagery and fragmented design emulsified in the layouts of each composition, throwing off the viewers and pushing them to think past the individual images on the page. In written poetry, this approach is called “keyholes.” Here, certain phrases are added to the narrative, throwing off the reader, invoking them to look deeper into why it was included to begin with, yet feels seamless within the overall story or, in my collages, the overall design.