Solo Exhibition

Julian Udine | HOW TO ASSEMBLE A MEMORY

Modeka Art is proud to present the first solo exhibition entitled “How to Assemble a Memory” by visual artist Julian Udine.

For her first solo exhibition, Julian Udine explores the fluidity and changeability of memory – how the things we remember contain natural gaps between them and how these spaces can be filled with our own self hoods, psyches, and beliefs. It is within those gaps that we cultivate personal narratives as part of our basic human desire to assemble meaning.

For this body of work Julian examines the memories of her mother, who passed away nearly ten years ago. With a background in Psychology, Julian understands that human memory is subjective, edited over time, and changes to align with our present-day insights. She works to reconcile her studies on meta-knowledge with her recollection of her mother, which is rich in both detail and negative space. Because these spaces give way for her personal interpretations, Julian investigates whether these memories are a true impression of her mother, or simply a reflection of herself and her own familiarity.

Through her sculptures, Julian constructs a morphology for invisible memory. By materializing her own memory’s fluidity and empty space, the artist highlights traits that we rarely notice when we reminisce about the past. Her works lean into surrealist language, yet are somewhat impressionistic to the observing eye. Like memory, the sculptures adopt a natural relationship with negative space, harmonizing with adjacent emptiness to create context where there is nothing. Intricately calculated and hand painted, her sculptures ebb from calm to mercurial, as if telling the viewer to feel in order to see.

Much like the abating nature of time, Julian’s works are remindful of solid yet ambiguous recollections. In How to Assemble a Memory, and How to Fill the Spaces, she unpacks fragmented realities in the flesh as various shapes cascade, suspend, and fit into one another. As they merge into a whole—yet nearly undetectable—half-silhouette of a face, the artist weaves sentiments of resolution, diffusion, and the relationship with the gaps in our memory. In parallel, Julian renders endless iterations of memory in the Is it You or is it Me series. Interlocking sculptures fuse into continuous waves of vivid color and texture. Through this, the artist materializes how a single memory can be recalled over and over, and yet evolve and be remembered differently as we move forward in time.

Essential to its core are the persistence of nostalgia, meta-thought, and an inquiry into clean-cut narratives. The vital similitude that illuminates the wonders of “How to Assemble a Memory” reminds us that our perceptions of the past are also a reflection of our present selves.

To book a private viewing or to request for the digital catalogue, use the forms below or contact us at info@modeka.space or (+63) 956 174 9185.