Ashley Kauschinger
Questions of Origin | Questions of Origin investigates complicated aspects of the mother/daughter relationship. The series reflects upon family dynamics, memory, shared human experiences, and the process and observation of aging by depicting constructed narratives of the artist and her mother, and still lives of objects and environments that suggest intimacy. The work examines a spectrum of emotional experiences that are often fraught with complications and contradictory aims such as, love, anger, longing, guilt, dependency/independence, confinement, closeness, and distance. Visual interpretations of these emotions are constructed into narratives to allow a significant questioning of how family affects identity. Photographs of the artist and her mother allow the viewer to observe what is shared physically between mother and daughter, and emotional communications through gesture. Recurring themes such as transitional stages of life, family, femininity, and memory are also used to communicate the relationship. The imagery is left ambiguous and open-ended to encourage the viewer to contemplate their own life experiences associated with family, mothers, and being a daughter. www.ashleykauschinger.com
