Misunderstanding Memory

Upcoming print exhibition probes our capacity to remember accurately in a digital era

TORONTO (April 18) – Memory’s tendency toward distortion is the focus of a print exhibition by Toronto photographer Caley Taylor opening next week in the city’s east end.

Misunderstanding Memory, presented by Leslie Grove Gallery, April 27-May 15, features twenty-five prints whose negatives Taylor reconstructed in a darkroom. 

The effort, intended to mimic memory’s tendency to recreate experiences rather than retrieve them whole, contrasts how seamlessly digital photographs can be distorted with filters and photoshop changes.

“These exhibition photographs are intentionally imperfect just as memories are far from perfect recordings of our past events,” she says. “Memories fade, recede, change, become embellished and disappear completely when we pass.”

Taylor, a sought-after portrait photographer, invites patrons to consider what’s lost ­– or gained –if our memories are increasingly informed by distorted digital images.

She also hopes the show will inspire patrons toward forgiveness and gentleness.

“Let’s be kind to our friends and family by acknowledging our faulty minds,”she says.

“We all have differing interpretations of our past experiences and we all mistakenly recall events, but this is normal.

“Memory distortions are part of being a human. Be forgiving and gentle with each other. All we can do is try to live as peacefully as possible in the present moment and hopefully enjoy each other’s embellished stories from our unique and one-of-a-kind journey.”

Misunderstanding Memory is Taylor’s first conceptual exhibition and third solo gallery showing.

written by: Katie Rook