Comfort © De’ De Ajavon
The artist’s new exhibition Synchronicities, Traditions, and Remembrance at The Prelude Pointe Gallery in Marietta, Georgia attempts to materialize the memory of her father’s death.
When De' De’ Ajavon was just six years old, she lost her father. His passing left a gaping, unrecoverable hole that she's only recently been able to process. Using cyanotypes for their rich, murky blues, Ajavon digs through the emotional and physical reminders that continue to haunt her to this day. “Grief is a life-long, ever-evolving experience,” she writes, “and, because I was so young when he passed, I’ve had to spend my whole adult life trying to heal myself.”
Ajavon's images depict literal and metaphorical haziness, serendipity, and a perpetual void – she describes her work as a response to decades of “deep contemplation regarding time’s ability to distort our memories and how we perceive them.” It's a means to support her perpetual grieving process, act as tangible evidence of loss, and, she writes, “as a subconscious lead to the things we might have already known deep down inside.”
The exhibition is currently on view in Marietta, Georgia at The Prelude Pointe Gallery space through March 2, 2022.
I spoke with Ajavon to wade through it.
Jon Feinstein in conversation with De’ De’ Ajavon
