31 memories

Yuhuan Zhang
Ink on folded transfer papers, 2023

In 31 Memories, I explore the making of memory through folding paper and allowing ink to move within it. Each drawing begins with a small sheet of translucent transfer paper. I fold it once, place drops of ink inside, then fold it again in response to the memory of gestures already held in the paper. Each action leaves an impression that shapes what follows.

The folds create dents, grooves, and pathways through which the ink travels. It pools in some places and spreads thinly through others, leaving dense textures, faint shadows, and irregular edges. The creases give the drawings a structure, while the ink’s own materiality introduces movements I cannot fully anticipate. The resulting marks hold the encounter between my gestures, the paper, and the ink.

This process evokes the folded surface of the brain and the intimate, cellular spaces in which we imagine memories being held. It is also a tribute to Japanese origami: the transformation of paper into sculptural form through folding. In these drawings, each fold briefly gives the paper an interior: a space where a mark is formed.

The translucency of transfer paper suggests the delicate boundary of a cell membrane. A mark on one side appears through the other as a shadow, both present and semi-obscured. This shifting visibility echoes the way memories return to us: with varying degrees of clarity, shaped by what remains and what has faded.

Some drawings recall Rorschach inkblots. Their apparent symmetry invites recognition, while their irregularities keep that recognition unsettled. We search for bodies, faces, landscapes, or other familiar forms, bringing our own experiences to what we see. Can we also stay with a mark before naming it? With what has yet to become familiar?

31 Memories approaches remembering as an act of creation. A fold holds the trace of an earlier gesture; that trace guides another movement. Memory takes shape through these successive encounters, as something carried forward and continually becoming.