The WallUnit 2011

The Wall Unit Doc Now: Ryerson University Media Arts Festival Multi media installation including: video, wall unit, television set, and a hand-made family photo album

Barbara Greczny, Solo exhibition

Beaver Hall Gallery

June 10 - 25, 2011

The Wall Unit is a mixed-media, multi-layered installation project inspired by Greczny's mothers death in 2006. The project explores the process of memory in relation to dementia as well as the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. Challenging notions of public and private, The Wall Unit is an intimate portrayal of this difficult life experience.

The use of the actual wall unit that belonged to her mother is the focal point of the installation. With the wall unit isolated off-centre, in a large empty gallery space, the physical viewing environment has the sensation of a strange remoteness surrounding its core, much like the feelings of loneliness dementia patients experience. The wall unit is metaphorically the keeper of memories and the witness to her mothers demise. The use of the actual object and not a replica brings another layer of meaning into the installation, representing Grecznys personal experience with her mothers illness and denial of her condition. By incorporating other peoples experiences with dementia through video and audio interviews displayed on monitors nestled in the wall unit and on its shelves, the problems associated with the disease are more broadly explored. The wall unit, designed to hold various small objects and mementos, becomes a symbol of the fragility of memory and the fractured or fragmented memory of a person who has dementia.