Camille Valdepeñas Drury

It can be hard to remember how something was because of what it is now. Memories get muddled or forgotten, they are only grounded by the photographs found shoved into boxes that confirm they were real. “Heartwood (2023)” is a collection of images that examines the domestic space as central to the cyclical nature of a multi-generational upbringing and the resurgence of a family archive as a way to view identity as a familial concept. Looking at my mother’s childhood as an Asian American woman alongside my own,became a way to absorb the material life of the house, people, and decisions that made me. The photographs act as recognition of a space as it becomes a direct representation of an inheritance of deterioration and functions as a reminder that we don’t have to become our family, but we will always have behaviors, voices, and bodies that were made from them.

Take a seat, have a look, handle the book with care.

Camille Valdepeñas Drury (b. Providence, Rhode Island) is an artist that examines the archive in relation to the life cycles of changing landscapes, focusing on environmental ephemerality. She currently lives and works in New York.