These projects approach application of palimpsest as a way to not just simply see history in the present but how history acts in the present. “A framing of time and realities as palimpsest, or imperfect erasure, suggests that the past is visible and acting upon the present. It signifies the ways current, new ways of being have already been inscribed in earlier positioning.”The definition of palimpsest refers to parchment paper that has been imperfectly erased two or three times for reuse. These parchment records are difficult to interpret because these layers bleed into each other after being revealed, “The layers of a palimpsest, thus, could not be read in linear, sequential time as each layer was part and parcel of what came before it.” These layers embody a timestamp, visually representing an attempt made to destroy markings embedded into a surface. When these layers are revealed they merge and become a singular work, intertwining ink marks into an illustration. Here is where we can apply the definition of palimpsest to other mediums. By broadening the scope of its application conceptually we can see the remnants of previous layers that were not meant to survive whatever effort was made to remove it. 

 

I began interpreting palimpsest as a methodology rather than the limited referral to unsuccessfully erased parchment papers. My projects each attempt to approach palimpsest in different ways. I explore material interactions, memory, nostalgia, and the deconstruction of mediums. In each project I began by asking, how can the interaction of conflicting layers in this medium achieve a common goal? Unlike printmaking, which merges layers to complete the form of a specific visual, similar to the pieces for a puzzle, the methodology of palimpsest attempts to create by attempting to ignore or destroy the previous layer. 

 

Click on the title of each project for more information