“What does it mean when home is a place you don’t want to return to?”
Nowhere is an ongoing lens-based exploration of my memories of growing up in Drumheller, AB, attempting to reconcile the place with my traumatic history within it. I was raised for most of my life in Drumheller and my formative experience there was marked by trauma, developing mental illness, loneliness, isolation, and religious indoctrination. Drumheller is a place where I grew up feeling lost and without an identity, and yet it is a place I felt compelled to return to for some time as if it somehow held the answer to all my lingering struggles with mental illness. I realize now that what fascinates me about Drumheller is the incongruity of the place with my traumatic history there. It is a beautiful, kitschy, strange little town that belies a traumatic history for me. Coming to terms with this tension is at the heart of this project.
Nowhere is generously funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Calgary Arts Development.