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Mnemosyne is a river in Hades from whence initiates drink to remember everything that was in their lives. Mnemosyne is also the goddess of memory in Greek mythology.
“River Mnemosyne: The MirrorMyth Library” is the photo exhibit of Adelle Victoria at the Blacksoup Project Art Space, Cubao X Shoe Expo, running until December 10.
Victoria explains, “Conjuring these images is mythopoesis, the making of myths. A myth is a sacred story that tells of the beginnings of the world, or of how the world and the creatures in it came to have their present form. In this exhibit, the sequence of imagery is presented as a myth, the mythmaking of the self; a sacred narrative of how the artist’s soul came to be. By sacred, it is meant that the imagery is deemed to be spiritually significant. In ‘The Power of Myth,’ Joseph Campbell wrote that myth is the power of metaphor and poetry; the myth is false literally, but metaphorically, it is true. This is my truth. These visual pieces interlace a tale of the soul’s pilgrimage: from innocence and duality, to isolation and the dark, to love and its many semblances, to awakening and liberation, then to the unknown, and then back.”
The images are haunting, sensual and yet innocent. They are both surreal and allegorical, much a product Jungian symbolism as they are Freudian introspection. Sepia-tinted, bordered by vintage paper trim and photographed and developed on black and white film, the photos represent a reinvention of film photography—a dying craft in the digital age—by one of today’s most promising young photo artists.
Together with Wawi Navarroza—an internationally exhibited photographer who as Victoria’s classmate at De La Salle University shared the same mentor, Judy Freya Sibayan—Victoria represents the cutting edge of art photography today, capturing not just the reality of our waking lives but also the truth of our nocturnal selves as well. Much like their penchant for retro film technology, Victoria, Navarroza and their contemporaries go forward by traveling inward.
As part of Bitaw! (House of Alternative Art and Chamber Theater) multidiscip- linary art group and Romancing Venus troupe Victoria is a true artist, involved as she is in various mediums such as theater, poetry, film, dance and performance art.
Victoria and others like her need to be seen supported. Their dreams are ours as well. |
