“The Light in This House is the culmination of Megan Barrette’s intensive 3-month residency at Flower City Arts Center during the summer of 2019. Blending images moving and still, contemporary and archival, Megan invites viewers into her childhood memories in this multi-media exhibition.” -Megan Charland
Photography is a powerful supplement to memory, though its modern ubiquity can sometimes make the moments feel hollow. In delving into family history, I began digitizing neglected VHS tapes, trying to resuscitate them out of dormancy.
One home video I found particularly fascinating was my mother’s first-person recording of our family home in 1994, shortly before we moved in. This memory felt particularly relevant. This is the house I grew up in and the house that grew around me.
When I was a child, we’d spend a weekend visiting family every few months on the American side of Niagara Falls. Watching out the car window, a vivid hometown turned to thruway and became a power line landscape and industrial time capsule. After selling our grandmother’s home, our anchor untethered from the city. Since then the trip is less frequent, and when I visit I am never present.
The Light in This House is a visual dialogue, reflecting on these locations, their significance, and their metaphoric implications.
