These are the questions and stories that Brewster mined, along with the scenes she documented from her inaugural trip to Guyana, to inform this robust collection of 26 wood panels, Place in Reflection, 2016. Here process and material are just as key as visual imagery. The artist employs a gel transfer technique to transplant black and white photographs, many of which are tattered, torn, stained, and scratched, onto small wooden panels.“ These transferred images are reflections that naturally, through the material, reveal imperfections,” she notes.
In her intent to expose the flaws and make visible the defects in the images, Brewster alludes to a personal concept of homeland as a space of shifting memory, as suggested by the blurry treatment in some of the images. We are left to ponder: Do the memories of fruits in a market place stall, school girls dressed in their uniforms, or a breezy verandah belong to the artist? Or, are they borrowed memories, reflecting a desire for a homeland that never was?
Sandra Brewster Place in Reflection, 2016( Photo: Argenis Apolinario)
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