Imagined Family Heirlooms, Tintype Photos, and the Work of Keily Anderson-Staley.

From Imagined Heirlooms

I recently came across this project by Keily Anderson-Staley while wandering aimlessly through Kickstarter projects.

“Imagined Family Hierlooms” is a collection of modern tintype portraits paired with found objects set up to resemble the way such heirlooms are often displayed in homes.

From the project’s Kickstarter page:

I  bring objects together from a wide range of places and times, sometimes even my own family, but no real family is represented by the installations. They are potential but imaginary heirloom collections, fragments of other collections that have been forgotten in boxes or abandoned to thrift stores. When combined with my own work, each of these objects is put into a new context, a new history, even as the individual object still evokes the unique past it has been separated from. Read the entire write-up here. 

Staley’s project explores the role of photography in creating family history and sheds light on the gray area between fact and fiction, which is the undercurrent of family identity.

Besides the pure aesthetic delight of this collection, I love how the artist is exploring the contextualization of images and stories and their role in the creation and perpetuation of individual and collective identity.  Endlessly fascinating. Have you seen this exhibit?  What are your thoughts on it?

From Imagined Family Heirlooms.

Watch her Kickstarter video here:

To see more photos and learn more about the artist and her other work be sure and visit her page here.   Anderson-Staly works in Arkansas and appears to have a studio here, and we hope to have more posts on this artist in the near future.  Stay tuned.  If you know the artist or are familiar with her work, please let us know!  We can’t wait to learn more.

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