Brzyska, Angelica

Ghosts of the Home: Unfolded Pasts & Traces of the Old Country is a project that encompasses material and conceptual research regarding the realities of people with cross-cultural identities. The core of this thesis work relies on my own Polish-Canadian identity, the material exploration of paper through printmaking, the Polish folk art called wycinanki and installation. Nostalgia is present in the work as I reference my early childhood, which is a time when I felt the strongest connection to my Polish heritage and before I began to assimilate into Canadian culture. It is through artmaking that I bridge the gap between my identities. The tactility of the repetitive actions of printmaking and paper cutting allows for my mind to remember the place of childhood.