Plexus is a photographic case study based on still lifes that emerge from inherited trauma and postmemory, exploring the family as an essential contributor to psychological and cultural processes across history. Following my grandmother’s death, I returned to my family estate in Bavaria, using the house as a stage – and its archive as protagonist – for an allegorical play. In reconnecting the fragmented history of my family’s female lineage, the term ‘remembering’ becomes literal. Immersing myself into the story, I fill in gaps with dreams, associations, and imagined scenes to create a narrative that transgresses personal and national boundaries. The objects and architecture of the house become parabolic proxies, opening up a gate between the past and the present. Permeating the imagery is a figurative search for recurring histories, echoing my own repetition of the behaviours of both my mother and grandmother. By confronting a past spanning four generations, a renewed sense of identity provides ground for a detailed investigation of postmemory, mental health, war, and history.
