Making Connections, 2020

Abe Ekren

As humans, we have a need to be understood by others. We do this by trying to understand ourselves and sharing what we have found. With the help of many, I have come to a deep understanding of my emotions, symptoms, and traumas. I share these unedited realities of mental illness, with a focus on the effects of memory loss due to trauma. Making Connections is an evolved, living document, where I try to piece lost information together, with what I have now. I took to printmaking to narrate the basics of my life: where and I am and what I know I use. I then compiled various documents—prescriptions, old journal entries, lab results—to create my installation. The redactions in the documents serve as my “blanks” in memory, to create an accurate depiction of what this confusion feels like. These documents appear hastily put together and they are connected by string and marker. This creates a larger-than-life conspiracy board, where the viewer can follow along as I attempt to answer the questions: What led up to now? How did I get here? Why?