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Browsing SWORD Deposit by Author "Abballe, Alessandra"
This paper is written to accompany my MFA thesis exhibition, An object thick with presence (the presence of an absence), which took place April 14 - 17, 2025 at Special Projects Gallery (York University). The work included in this exhibition is informed by my sticky experiences with family photographs—experiences that situate me as what writer and scholar Sara Ahmed calls an “affect-alien,” a feminist killjoy, and unhappy queer. The exhibition consists of reworked images gleaned from my family albums, ceramic objects, and various photo-installation strategies in an effort to work on, with, and against the structure of the family album in order to imbue it with new meaning. The aim of this paper, “Sticky feelings, like velcro,” is to make sense of and contextualize my inclinations in making through an explanation of and grounding in queer and intersectional feminist theory and practices, alongside personal auto theoretical anecdotes. How do images from my personal archives—ones that I hold so much affection for, but do not feel myself reflected in—register? How can I work in tandem with these images to claim space and agency? My thesis exhibition and this accompanying support paper use these questions as a springboard to look up and back, as well as forward and onward.