Review by curator Jane Szabo:
"In Dana Walker’s image, Joan’s Trinity, the artifacts on the wall of pictures once hanging, now destined to be distributed to a mourning relative, are ghostly and haunting. The stains dripping down the wall are a bit inexplicable to me, and leave me feeling that the artworks themselves have also died with the passing of the owner.

This photograph gives me the visceral sensation that someone has left the room. I feel the emptiness, the quiet and the sadness. The profound effects of this picture work in two ways: first as a documentary photograph that tells the story of the emptying of a home, and secondly as a poetic narrative that speaks to the tentative aftereffects of a life lived.
 
Dana, the title for one of your images, Measured Spaces, Time Suspended, aptly describes all of the work you submitted, and gives me entrance into your experience of the suspended moments each photograph depicts. As adult children of elderly or deceased parents, we cling to these moments and recollections of places, which both preserve our loved ones, and our own personal history.

These photographs look backwards in time; I am curious if you are also making images that address your own moment in time, and how you move forward after the passing of a loved one.

How do we as artists, in this era of selfies, and the overwhelming documentation of every moment, create lasting images that speak more broadly to our human existence?"

Dana Walker says, "Memento mori-
Selfies present unquestionable proof of our existence… though a controlled, often hyper-realized, narrative of self. But unlike selfies, we have little to no control over mortality.

As an artist, I’ve long been intrigued by the places people inhabit and I’m interested in how, as an outsider, I can use photography to create new insights into loved ones. To re-imagine them solely through their belongings… through the spaces they inhabit.

The theme of this exhibit, “Confronting Mortality,” really spoke to me because it reflects concepts frequently explored in my work. My series, “measured spaces: time suspended,” reflects aspects of this theme … this series seeks to capture the transient nature of life… to create an intimate portrait (real or imagined) of someone, whether a close family member or a stranger, through fragments of their memories. 

Memories that inhabit spaces and haunt belongings. It is through these memories and the photographs I make that I feel better equipped to understand my own moment in time…to understand my existence…and to confront my own mortality."
 
Additional review by curator Ellen Jantzen: