Margaret Hart

The overarching purpose of my practice is to embody personal experiences in forms that are more or less absent of direct representation. Places where I feel words often fall short are resituated in textures and tactically interesting surfaces that evoke emotions or reactions rather than narratives. 

In this body of work, I am specifically exploring my relationship with memory. I have a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that was diagnosed 10 years after the incident that caused it. My ability to recall long term memories only spans a few years backward without being given a jumping-off point to start from. I have episodes where I can forget where I am or what day it is, I have days where my brain only stores information for an hour before losing it, and periods of time where I can only remember the past few seconds of dialogue mid-conversation. A condition like this, where loss is constant and inevitable is a strange thing to come to terms with and accept. Two pieces, Replevin and Scab-picker are about my internal relationship with my memory. The other two, Appropriate reasonable accommodations and “I’m sympathetic… however” are about my experiences with ableism and difficulties surrounding disability accommodations in academia.