"Reliquary" by Cavanaugh
Reliquary
Cavanaugh
Artist Statement:
The series merges two photographic styles important to immigrant experience: the photo as “proof of identity” (green card, passport) and the family album as a reliquary of memories, loss, love, and dreams. Nobuo came to the US in the early 1970s on a student visa, eventually got a green card, became a citizen, and had a long career as a college professor. I took two portraits of him at age 81, one facing forward and one backward. On these I superimposed scans of childhood photos from the late 1940s to mid-1950s during the American Occupation when Japan became a liberal democracy modeled on the United States. The series is a response to recent political rhetoric against immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Cavanaugh
