The work I create exists as a personal dialogue and exploration of memory. I have begun to develop a language utilizing forms and spaces representative of my recurring and obscured memories as a response to a distinct inability to remember. Reconstructing these memories through jewelry and wearable objects utilizing traditional silversmithing and fabrication techniques provides a degree of physical therapy in confronting memory directly. Often, the process of building a piece from a selective memory involves recalling missing or buried aspects of it, and through this I seek to create a wearable manifestation of the emotional and factual aspects of memory.

My work communicates a disconnection of memory through a reoccurrence of geometric forms symbolic of my obsessive recollection of emotions. Interacting with the objective characteristics of memory has created a distinct, personal relationship between the concept of scientific taxonomy and the process of cataloguing memory. Scientific taxonomy is derivative of a specific desire to not forget aspects of life. Organization in this manner is referential of the process of searching through and piecing together memories, however uncomfortable or painful that process may be. Including preserved animal parts alongside precious metal forms produces a visual and tactile conversation about the individual reality of permanence.

Central to the idea of attraction and repulsion, a range of dissimilar materials is employed to incite a level of emotional discomfort from both the wearer and the viewer, while the utilization of space produces a discomfort from volume. Evoking discomfort through a catalyst of visual contradiction relates to the tension generated by the understanding of the absence of memory. Though death is inferred, incorporating suspended animal parts is instead suggestive of the vulnerability and futility in trying to understand the process of memory, sensitive to an inherent weakness when facing the boundlessness of human nature.

For Questions and Contact: vmviletto@gmail.com.