Rita Keegan's 'Time, Place, Memory' Explores Memory as Active Labor

Rita Keegan's 2021 piece, 'Time, Place, Memory,' challenges fixed representations by portraying memory as an ever-changing, constructed state. The artist and archivist from New York utilizes her family's archive and migration history, employing collage, textiles, and digital media to delve into the concept of fluid identity. By highlighting scissors, glue, and photocopying, Keegan underscores the hand as a source of authorship and evidence of existence. This work resonates with the British Art Network film 'Journey to There, Genealogies of Black Curating in Britain,' which compiles two years of collaborative efforts. Keegan's textured surfaces promote a sense of intimacy, while her approach to archiving serves as a form of activism against standardization, bridging the past and present.