I shipped The Memory Vendor to its new home this month and have been reflecting on it for the past few weeks. I began this piece in 2017 while working in a refugee resettlement office in Akron, Ohio. It sat untouched for the better part of two years until I finished it at the end of 2019. It accompanied me in an unfinished state through several periods of transition, and even though I became frustrated with it numerous times, I knew it would be completed when it was ready to be.
I finished this painting in Los Angeles as my time working in U.S. immigration law came to a close. With each stage of this painting, the concept of freedom became increasingly more urgent. What is real freedom and who decides how it manifests in a life? Who do we consider worthy of it? What degree of freedom are we willing to confer onto others, and how does it differ from the freedom we're willing to extend to ourselves? What are the conditions behind these shifts and exchanges?
I do think real freedom is much more an internal state than a set of circumstances. This idea should never be used to justify the atrocity of limiting someone else's freedom, but rather to expand the possibility of what freedom can and can't be. For me, honesty is at least one of the conditions of freedom, and the most important thing about art is that it's honest.