Artist Statement


My artistic practice revolves around an exploration of the archive as a structure that reveals power dynamics, and reproduces hierarchies and oppressive social conditions. My primary focus lies on the in-between spaces, traces, and fragments found within different archives. I believe that an archive is partly defined by what it excludes - specifically, the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of marginalized individuals. I am interested in these exclusions and the practice of reading an archive "against the grain" or "on the diagonal," as described by Foucault. This means not merely considering the content of the documents themselves on a linear historical timeline, but also examining the bureaucratic system and structure of the institution in which an archive is embedded, deciphering what they convey between the lines, and recognizing what they omit. 

Bringing a postcolonial and feminist perspective to bear on the question, I ask whose history is preserved within an archive and whose remains untold. My aim is to point out gaps and biases, following Foucault's assertion that archival documents should not be regarded as sources of immutable truth but as evidence of power structures at work during their assembly.

By copying and remixing archival fragments and traces, which may take the form of photographs, text-based documents and charts, through montage, my goal is to reorganize the grammar and syntax inherent in an archive. The image worlds constructed seek to instill doubt, question the limits of representation, and underscore the inadequacy of both language and image in conveying the complete story.

Artist-CV-2024-ERBACHER.pdf