Imprint of Place

continued

The exhibit's most touching works, by recent Cranbrook M.F.A. Christina Day, gleam from a tiny shelf bearing items from an antique or thrift shop. A gold compact, a makeup case, two small metal lighters, a cigarette case, and other found objects bear shimmery photos on one of their faces. The photos, printed on transparent decals, show a lone streetlight, an old-fashioned decorated ceiling in tortoiseshell sepia-green, and a sunny tree-lined street as it might appear in a snapshot pulled from a dusty shoebox. The antique images, lovingly and carefully combined with relinquished personal items, suggest memories of a longed-for past mentally revisited so often that they have crystallized into real-world souvenirs of memory.

Imprint of Place is on display at Gallery Project, 215 South Fourth Avenue, through March 25.

[Review published March 2007]