Afragmented,lyricalessayonmemory,identity,mourning,andthemother.WritingishowIattempttorepairmyself,stitchingbackformerselves,sentences.WhenIambraveenoughIamneverbraveenoughIunravelthetapestryofmylife,mychildhood.--fromBookofMutterComposedoverthirteenyears,KateZambreno’sBookofMutterisatenderanddisquietingmeditationontheabilityofwriting,photography,andmemorytoembraceshadowswhileinthethroes--anddeadcalm--ofgrief.BookofMutterisbothprimalandsculpted,shapedbytheauthor’ssearching,indexicalimpulsetoinventoryfamilyapocryphainthewakeofhermother’sdeath.ThetextspiralsoutintoafracturedanatomyofmelancholythatincludescriticalreflectionsonthelikesofRolandBarthes,LouiseBourgeois,HenryDarger,TheresaHakKyungCha,PeterHandke,andothers.Zambrenohasmodeledthebook’sformlessformonBourgeois’sCellssculptures--atoncechannelingthevolatilityofautobiography,pain,andchildhood,yethemmedbyasolemnsenseofenteringritualisticorsacredspace.Neithermemoir,essay,norpoetry,BookofMutterisanuncategorizabletextthatdrawsuponarepertoireofgenrestowriteintoandagainstsilence.Itisahauntedtext,anaccumulativearchiveofmythandmemorythatseeksitsownundoing,drivenbycrosseddesirestoresurrectandexorcisethepast.Zambrenoweavesacomplexwebofassociations,relics,andreferences,elevatingtheprosaicscrapbookintoastrangeandintimatepostmortem/postmoderntheater.
identity photography BOOK ESSAY IDENTITY SENTENCES PHOTOGRAPHY essay
