Ahana Basu

Studio Art and English & Creative Writing major

My urge to take photographs comes from the desire to create archives of spatial memory, and visually preserve the ephemeral traces of human existence. I think of my photographs as pages of a journal that document what has been touched and altered by presence. We have a tendency to leave marks wherever we go, whether it is intentional or not. My photography is rooted in capturing how those marks alter and add to the spaces, and how they serve as solid ground for people to build upon in the future. Currently, I am exploring this phenomenon in my project Temporary Matters, a collection of images taken in the art studios at Wellesley College, documenting the way it holds memory.

Temporary Matters

archival inkjet prints, plywood, silk thread

Jewett Gallery, Jewett Hallway Galleries

three raw wood triangular pillars in a gallery; each side of each pillar holds 3 black-framed square black and white photographs of interior spaces

Temporary Matters is a collection of 27 images that serve as an archive of spatial memory. It captures how we live in a space, how we work in it, and what we leave behind when we move on from it. These are images of memories that a place holds on to long after its occupant has left, a physical manifestation of the life that was lived here. The project draws heavily from Michel Foucault's theory of heterotopias, which he describes as spaces that are in tension with the larger space they occupy. My photographs are of such heterotopias, the ones that are specifically present in the art buildings at Wellesley College -- Jewett and Pendleton West. The studios and rooms here are steeped in personal histories of people who have worked here before, scattered with memories and remnants of the things people built, conversations they engaged in, and revelations they had. When held up next to the sanitized nature of the rest of the campus, these two buildings seem like they are part of a different world altogether, a culmination of many smaller worlds that people create for themselves in here. The highly personal nature of art-making results in a space that is unique to the individual that inhabits it, and even when the person leaves, it holds onto remnants of them. At its heart, this body of work is a memory box of temporary matters, a collection of images that capture the ephemeral human presence in their absence, and documents how ever-evolving these two buildings are.

hands holding open pages of a square artist's book to show a page with black and white photo of words 'JEWETT ARTS CENTER' on glass in front of blurry campus image

hand holding up a square artist's book to show page with black and white photo of interior space with complex sun and shadows

square artist's book with silk thread binding resting on a black pedestal; title reads 'Temporary Matters' with artist's name 'Ahana Basu' at bottom

black and white photo of a wall with small nails and bits of paper pinned to it; a dark crumpled leaf is near the center of the frame; light reflections from two tall rectangular windows with panes cut across the scene

black and white photo of a painting of a bearded man on the floor leaning against a set of narrow horizontal shelves with a shaft of sunlight angling across it

square black framed black and white photograph of oil paint tubes on a glass-top tabouret with painting in the background; the frame is hung on a plywood pillar; in the background is another pillar with 3 framed photos on it

three wooden pillars, each with 3 black framed black and white photos installed on them, in a gallery

3 wooden pillars, each with 3 black framed black and white photos installed on it, in a gallery

close up on triangular wooden pillar with a black-framed black and white photo of the interior of a studio space, with more pillars and artwork visible in the background

corner of a triangular wooden pillar with black framed black and white photos installed on either side

gallery space with various artworks; centered in the frame are 3 tall raw wood triangular pillars, each side of each pillar hung with 3 square black framed black and white photographs

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