THE SOUND OF FORGETTING

We are all filled with biases. Many are unconscious, swirling around in the background, dictating our behavior from the blindspots in our awareness. They are learned shortcuts that sometimes give us an advantage and at other times they become a detriment to our well being and an impediment to our relationships to one another. They slink around in the darkness of our unconscious, their power derived from our ignorance. If we can become aware of them on some level, even the ones that disgust us, and we no longer accept being a servant to them, then we can choose which ones to remember and which ones to forget. But not in an avoidant way, rather forgetting by actively unlearning them. My work depends on a sort of forgetting—not by evading, but where I am open to becoming more aware of my unconscious habits, my biases, particularly the ones that hold me back, that hold my art back—so that I may create something new or see something with a fresh perspective (even if it’s a perspective of mine that disappoints me). The sound of forgetting is an "aha" moment—the recognition of one's own bias. It is a sound that cannot be unheard. It is a sound that reverberates in your mind, reshuffling the deck of past experiences. It is a different sound for each of us each time. One time it may sound like a breeze whispering in your ear, another time it may sound like the dropping of a cinderblock through a glass terrace. Indeed, there is always a sound.