Erica Young

Thesis Project: Only The Object Is Real

Installation

2022

Etching on Hannemuhle, screen printing on vellum, plaster.

Objects in assemblage evoke the myths that have built up around them; objects alone tell the truth.

“The Franklin Expedition disappeared 177 years ago, leaving behind nothing but mountains of relics and a few cryptic notes. Since then it has become the topic of myths and speculative narratives of myriad cultures including Inuit, British, and Settler Canadian. These myths often seem to exist in tension with the very real objects that remain and the individuals that they clearly evoke, floating diaphanously in the ether while these relics remain solidly tied to the people who possessed them. This project is an attempt to explore that tension as well as the myths and relics that comprise it through a series of small, detailed etchings, larger screen-prints, and plaster moulds. The stories that surround this expedition can be used a lens through which to examine questions of colonization, complicity, gender, and the construction of a settler state; the objects themselves only speak of individuals and the horror that befell them.”