Welcome to the project site for rejected stories- this site will serve as not only submission vehicle for participants to submit their own stories to the project, but also as an ongoing blog for me to post project updates and such.
Since a large part of the ultimate success of this project will depend of the quantity of stories submitted, I do hope that you will not only participate and submit, but will also encourage your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors (you get the point) to submit.
rejected stories started as a small, site-specific installation to explore the idea of the memory that never becomes a memory. What of all the "grand plans" for travel and adventure we make with our friends at the bar that never materializes, the crushes and unrequited loves that never turn into anything other than a knot in your stomach, the New Year’s resolutions that have ended before they have even begun, and the painting that never was more than a doodle in one’s sketchbook. How is it that those things seem so important to us at the time we are pondering/obsessing about them, but can be cast away so easily when the path becomes difficult, cost prohibitive or simply just forgotten about.
My work has long used the book as metaphor for memory and personal stories, usually in the context of actual memories that have been forgotten due to afflictions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s – here I explore those seedlings of ideas that are never nurtured and therefore never realized into an actual event to trigger a memory being recorded into one’s mind.
The popular culture image of the writer sitting at the typewriter toiling away, ripping sheet of paper after sheet of paper out of the typewriter and crumpling it up, discarding those sparks of thoughts and ideas so haphazardly into the garbage until the can overflows… this image did much to inform the initial version of this work. How soon before we fill our own life’s trash can with unrealized memories and it begins to overflow, and therefore, overwhelm us? Would we even notice?
As this work continues to be explored and take shape, I am eliciting anonymous responses from participants (as well as myself) of their own rejected stories in life as source material. And should this project never be realized, at least it will become its own self-fulfilling idea.
However, with the submission of participant's written stories, the piece can take on a new life and scale. This is just the start.
Since a large part of the ultimate success of this project will depend of the quantity of stories submitted, I do hope that you will not only participate and submit, but will also encourage your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors (you get the point) to submit.
rejected stories started as a small, site-specific installation to explore the idea of the memory that never becomes a memory. What of all the "grand plans" for travel and adventure we make with our friends at the bar that never materializes, the crushes and unrequited loves that never turn into anything other than a knot in your stomach, the New Year’s resolutions that have ended before they have even begun, and the painting that never was more than a doodle in one’s sketchbook. How is it that those things seem so important to us at the time we are pondering/obsessing about them, but can be cast away so easily when the path becomes difficult, cost prohibitive or simply just forgotten about.
My work has long used the book as metaphor for memory and personal stories, usually in the context of actual memories that have been forgotten due to afflictions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s – here I explore those seedlings of ideas that are never nurtured and therefore never realized into an actual event to trigger a memory being recorded into one’s mind.
The popular culture image of the writer sitting at the typewriter toiling away, ripping sheet of paper after sheet of paper out of the typewriter and crumpling it up, discarding those sparks of thoughts and ideas so haphazardly into the garbage until the can overflows… this image did much to inform the initial version of this work. How soon before we fill our own life’s trash can with unrealized memories and it begins to overflow, and therefore, overwhelm us? Would we even notice?
As this work continues to be explored and take shape, I am eliciting anonymous responses from participants (as well as myself) of their own rejected stories in life as source material. And should this project never be realized, at least it will become its own self-fulfilling idea.
However, with the submission of participant's written stories, the piece can take on a new life and scale. This is just the start.