“In the Trace (of something or a place), we gain possession of the thing; in the Aura, it takes possession of us.”– Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, Harvard University Press, 1999
All that remains of a place that either no longer exists or, over time, has become transformed into something else, is our memory of it. My drawings strive to evoke time passing, by depicting architecture and landscape devolving and evolving. Working from an assembly of images from a wide range of collected sources –experiential and found - my work explores the relationship between memory and dream, and the experience of reality and the past.
About Elise kaufman
Elise Kaufman received her B.F.A from the Pratt Institute, and her M.F.A. from Queens College (CUNY). Her work is in numerous public and private collections, in the US and Europe. She is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Drawing at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She is a former Professor of drawing at Parsons School of Design, in New York City.