Faculty of Art
Photography
Valerie Gong
A Handful of Memories
Mixed Media
2021
A Handful of Memories is a text-based artwork using the techniques of creative nonfiction and redaction, in exploration of time, memory and identity. The creative nonfiction piece is composed of three parts – personal essay, memoir and literary journalism- each offer a different approach to look at the gap that lies between emotional truth and fact.
“Redaction allows these writing pieces transform into new narratives and poems. The message behind altering the text holds the purpose of recreating how memory functions. We rarely remember anything as a whole, instead, memory appears in bits and pieces of images, scraps of conversations and flashes of situations. By redacting, I essentially delete the parts in the work which connect all those bits and pieces, as well as what I identify as something my own mind had forged. In doing so, the memory as it is, has been recreated. If you wish to experience this artwork with its original sound track, please head over to the link provided in More Info section. You can also find this work on my website, under 'Ongoing Thesis'.”
Work by
Valerie Gong
Photography & Creative Writing
“Hi, I am Valerie. First I am a writer, and then I am an artist. I produce storytelling works in the form of creative writing, as well as visual arts. Storytelling is the most important way of self...” [More]