What does it mean to remember? How much can we trust our memory? Is every encounter new or can something we forgot find us again?
Walla Walla artist Ali Pope contemplates these questions in her new exhibit in the Lorenzen Gallery at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. Ali Pope: A Fluid Mind will be on display through March 31, and admission is free, thanks to support from Coldwell Banker Farley Company.
“Memories are fluid; they flow in and out of our minds like vapor slipping between the cracks of our subconscious. They reach out to connect us with our past like shadowy fingers extending into space,” Pope writes in her artist’s statement. “Memories shine a light from the past as we remember smells, warmth, and voices. Our memories may also startle us out of our present, pulling us through time and into darkness we thought we’d left behind. These forms embody the challenge of finding what has been lost to the recesses of our minds — or the struggle to forget.”
Pope uses methods of painting, printmaking, and sculpture to examine memory and question the reliability of human consciousness. Her most recent work, Edge of Memory, represents what is found and lost in the gaps of our recollection.
Pope was born in Portland, Maine and moved to Walla Walla, Wash., to complete her undergraduate degree in biology at Whitman College. She currently works in the wine industry and continues to explore nature, beauty, and humanity through her artwork.
The Lorenzen Gallery at PCA provides an exhibit space for emerging artists in the region to share new work. More information is available by calling 541-278-9201 or visiting the PCA website.
