“For as long as I can remember, I have always…”
We all like stories. Narratives pervade not only childhood but also our relationship to others, to our career, our past and our beliefs. My work inhabits this narrative space and, in disentangling and building from personal and historical fiction, conjures up our constant search for linear, comprehensive and resolved stories. The notion of identity is crucial in my apprehension of subject matter. What does one do when faced with manifold cultural, geographical and religious heritage? How does one shape a clear and comprehensive autobiography from a convoluted and fragmented reality? My work does not offer a satisfying compromise but rather, dwells within the limitations of our narrative endeavors.

Found objects, films or photographs that appeal to me in that they recall my family history or cultural heritage often trigger my work. A 16mm film shot by my grandfather in Venezuela, a movie depicting 1930’s Yiddishkeit, a bundle of pictures bearing the traces of unidentified relatives… these artifacts are all witnesses to the diasporic elements that compose my past. It is their enigmatic connection to my present that I aim to uncover.

My media of choice–animation, artists books and drawing–evoke classical modes of storytelling. My treatment of the media emphasizes the presence or absence of formal parameters such as characterization, introduction, development and conclusion; reflecting on them, rather than using them as recognizable and comforting aids. My drawings and animations do not only give a visual identity to an existing story, but are the retelling and making of the story itself.

The technique and illusion at work in film and animation is an intricate part of this process. The repetitive, almost obsesionnal practice of hand-drawn animation allows me to focus on the imagery I have chosen, to inspect every frame in its entirety, and to withhold the 24 images-per-second mechanism. But this painstaking endeavor to break down the filmic sequence and to free the subject matter from its narrative framing often results in an even more subjective and elusive interpretation.

While I was raised in a family with a long migration history, it is my own departure from Europe to the United States that triggered the set of inquiries that form the core of my art practice today. My focus has shifted from wanting to invent and share stories to embracing the very fables that govern my perception of history and identity. Just as the single frame and the animated sequence cannot be reconciled, my idea of self cannot wholly embrace at once all of the elements that compose it.