Stories We Tell Ourselves
“For my mother. She inspires me to my first memories of happiness.”
In Stories We Tell Ourselves, Rainy Siagian question the operating data collection in image-making. The imagery she captured of her mother, in a way, compels the viewers to inquire about the meaning behind her subject matter; Does the photograph evoke questions just as any image does? What is objective and what is subjective in the narrative of the image? What is the role of the maker in directing the story and/or the image?
In an attempt to re-write and re-tell part of her memory as well as the present, Siagian triggers memories and feelings as reflection. While some images are carefully constructed, others are incidental scenes she encounters in the daily life of her mother, thus images lay between both staged and reality. The truth and the stories behind the images, however, are only known between the two: herself and her mother.