The Edna Experiments
The Edna Experiments is a multi-media installation based on a series of found diaries of a woman named Edna. The diaries span approximately 15 years (from the late 1950’s to early ‘70’s) and portray meticulous details of Edna’s daily life but absolutely no emotion. The diaries list daily routines (washing, ironing, mending, gardening), the weather, the people who visit, and deaths. The books are records of an edited life, where what is preserved is terse, systematic and rooted in domestic and rural labor. The relationships between people are never revealed. As a reader, insight can only be gained through the accumulation of action and repetition. Very few moments stand out above the others.
The Edna Experiments explores this found personal history not only through the information that is in the diaries, but also through what is missing. The project looks at our own process of interpretation, including the desire to expand the narrative of Edna’s life beyond her methodical practice of everyday record keeping. That desire to “fill in the blanks†of an incomplete narrative is a key point of interest in the project. Ultimately, The Edna Experiments explores what constitutes a lived life, and our need for closure and meaning when we look to memorialize those who are gone.
All Photos by Greg Leshé
[...] I will be showing the 5 channel sound installation from The Edna Experiments [...]