by Elizabeth Stitch
I discovered an artist named Julia Huerling. She created an interesting series entitled RECOLLECTIONS https://www.behance.net/gallery/33492547/RECOLLECTIONS. Her comments relating to her work read as follows:
"A project from an Artistic Residency in Buenos Aires 2015. Photos of Buenos Aires traffic reconstructed as visual memory. What I remember is the flow, quantity and movement rather than the objects in it, which is why the cars are reduced to fragments."
This series caught my attention because I often feel like my experiences in transit are a blur. The amount of time that we spend going from point A to points B, C & D, then back to point A is immeasurable! I don't remember the people that I hold an elevator open for, or those that I say "hi" to in passing, or even the accident that I see on the side of the freeway. It's all a blur. Am I wasting this time, which frankly takes up a good 2 or 3 hours of everyday? Should I be more observant and in the present rather than planning ahead, daydreaming or singing along to Salt N Pepa's "Push It" on the radio (I only mention this song because I just heard it on the oldies station, again, which kind of blew my mind)?
I love that Heurling doesn't depict any people, it's all a blur of traffic. She also makes the cars anonymous through her use of repetition. It's a rat race. It's routine. It's repetitious. It's our daily lives. It makes me a bit sad. I kind of wish that I commuted via bicycle, horse, or simply walking. Maybe then I would be more observant and present. Just something to think about.
