As human beings, we are largely defined by our pasts. With reasonable certainty, we believe that events happened exactly as we remember them. Birth and death, success and failure, love and loss; these moments make up a key part of our subjective consciousness and, as we grow older, these memories fracture and fade. Eventually, we can no longer recall certain events in our lives.

Inspired by the looming promise of dementia and the constant flood of stimulation, this new body of work explores the fragility of memory and what happens when those last little firing synapses start to wear out. Images are torn, faded, mixed up, and confused.  Patterns, shapes, and colors repeat themselves; they fuse with others to create new pathways, images, and memories. By using mixed media techniques and abstract imagery, Zuercher aims to put the viewer in a jumbled mind state. A map here, a face there; these can trigger memories entirely different from their intended meaning-and completely out of context.

Joel Zuercher was born in Albuquerque, NM and is currently based in Los Angeles. He received a BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, and also holds a BFA in photography from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. His work has been exhibited in group shows throughout the western United States. This is his first solo show.