Plexus

2018 - ongoing

“Das ist das Böse. Alle haben es in sich, keiner will es haben, und wo soll es hin?
In die Luft? Es ist in der Luft, aber da bleibt’s nicht lang, es muss in einen Menschen hinein,
damit sie’s eines Tages packen und töten können.”

Max Frisch, Andorra

‘Plexus’ is an exploration of a suppressed and unfamiliar past, entangled with numerous layers of personal and collective history, trauma, memory, and silence.
In this work, I investigate the complex routes of my ancestors using my family house and archive. The fabrication of accounts through objects and spaces reveals bridges between the now and then.
Observing the past through the inheritance of previous generations’ trauma and memory decades later frames an individual and national narrative of German history. This photographic case study provides a familiar terrain to explore the influence of the family in the discovery of psychological and cultural processes within history.
The creation of dream-like environments and symbols interlinks all that is remembered and simultaneously forgotten. Constructing a home and a sense of identity, spanning across four generations, provides grounds for a detailed investigation of postmemory, mental health, war and history.

RCA Show 2019
29 June 2019 to 7 July 2019 | 12:00 – 18:00
Royal College of Art, 1 Hester Road, London SW11 3AN
Photography Studios in Radstock Street, 2nd Floor
Battersea Campus

Winner of the Ginnel Foto Award, ‘In Repeat’
29 May to 29 June | 9:00 – 17:00
The Frameworkshop & Gallery
22 St Nicholas St, Ipswich IP1 1TJ

Category Winner of the AOP Student Awards
1 to 30 July 2019 | 9:00 – 19:00
Student Awards Exhibition
Wex Photo Video, London E1 1LF

ELENA HELFRECHT

Plexus