The Architecture of Memory is an installation that took shape over a period

of eight months in preparation for a solo exhibition, "The Lightness of Bearing," at  the Rowan University Art Gallery in Glassboro, NJ.

 

It was inspired by the university’s historic mansion, Hollybush, and its mistress, Josephine Allen Whitney, wife of Thomas Whitney, whose factory gave Glassboro

its name. Likened to a 19th-century

version of the caryatid, Josephine bore

the weight of raising seven children. However, she is largely absent from the historical record.

 

A chaotic jumble of architectural elements and plasters made from casts of the mansion's crown moldings acts as a metaphor for sorting out fragmented memories of the past.

 

Hollybush is filled with Italianate orna-mentation, including three rooms of  acanthus-filled cornices. Working from silicone molds used in the restoration of

the mansion, I began casting the acanthus leaves — a symbol of life and fecundity — into Hydrostone.

 

What became clear during this process was that having to pick through and reassemble these architectural fragments — essentially bits of the mansion’s history — was akin to trying to piece together the scattered details of Josephine’s story.

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Click on the video below for a virtual

walk-through of the entire exhibition.