Revisitations

Revisitations consists of five luminous small-scale images printed on metallic paper, each installed in unique wooden cases handcrafted by expert woodworkers Kathy and Jim Sawada. The images were constructed from Frank Rodick's probe into his family archives—materials compiled over more than half a century, mostly through his parents' used and antiquarian book business. In this mountain of books, documents, and photographs, he found pictures from sources diverse as antiwar pamphlets of the First Great War, vintage pornography, and historical materials based on the events that defined his parents' lives, in particular the Great Depression, World War II, and the Shoah. These included the images that also marked Rodick's early life, personal totems from childhood wanderings—solitary and secretive—among these materials that took place in the context of intense family interactions. Returning to them after decades—an experience as much physical as psychological—discharged a surge of memories, associations, and sensations. The result is a set of intimate and tactile works that speak to the potency of conflict, pain, and remembrance.