Connect the Dots, 2021

photo transfers on paper, 2 x 16in x 24in, 18in x 20.5in

The series of mixed media works Connect the Dots is part of a larger body of work investigating modern representations of warfare. Connect the Dots appropriates archival imagery of tactical formations used in allied air attacks during the Second World War. Some images utilized also depict the aftermath of such an attack. Erbacher employs photo transfer techniques to render said images blurred and grainy, thus hinting at the ways in which memory as well as ideology actively and continuously shapes and renegotiates our relationship to the past. Moreover, she uses digital processes to subtly alter the formations until they become the basis for patterns typically used in childrens’ drawing and coloring activity books, such as a flower, dinosaur or octopus. Harnessing the discursive and ideological clash resulting from these juxtapositions, Connect the Dots asks questions about the assumed neutrality of photography as a historical document, an impartial conveyor of historical facts.