Elena Dagan | Reflections/Reclamations: :Chinese Adoptees’ Memories, Photographs, & Truths

 
*Reflections/Reclamations* is a project that examines the experiences of American Chinese Adoptees as they use images of their past to reflect on their memories and identity as an adoptee and a Chinese person. In her book “On Photography” Susan Sontag writes, “Photographs furnish evidence”, but in the case of many adoptees this could not be more untrue. When understanding their adoption and upbringing, adoptees only have the stories they’re told, family archival images, and their memories—leaving ample room for one-sided stories. This amalgamation of half-truths, one-sided perspectives, and hazy memories often leaves adoptees feeling a sense of otherness, disconnect, and loss. This project aims to explore the dynamic of photographs and memory among American Chinese Adoptees today by giving them space to examine photographs from their past and process the emotional truths behind meaningful images.
The project focusses on interviews conducted with five American Chinese Adoptees as they present photos throughout life chapters that resonate with their understanding of their adoption and “Chineseness”. The final form of the installation utilizes projection mapping on a zigzagged screen to simultaneously show two stories at once. Creating a chaotic and overlapping auditory and visual experience of the adoptees’ voices and photographs, viewers walk across the left and right to experience the adoptees’ stories. To contrast the non-linearity of memory and the linear presentation of history, the images are presented in both linear, reversed, and non-linear sequences. While one side may depict a photo of the confusion and innocence of childhood, the opposite image may depict the importance of community, language, or self-expression as an adult.
Creating a dual channel video and audio experience creates an interaction that necessitates viewers to physically shift between angles to see and hear the adoptees’ stories. As they move between the physical angles, they experience a shift perspective, narrative, and timeline. Until focussing solely on one story at a specific angle, the viewer sees an incomplete picture—an unintelligible mess. Without careful consideration, our memories can fall into these blurs. While photographs cary different meanings to different people at different times, this installation aims to give voice to these adoptees in this moment. If viewed with intention and focus, their photographs and stories are reclaimed.