TY - GEN T1 - [3] The World As I Know It AU - Ziller, Kendall DA - 2018-10-1 PY - 2024 N1 -

Artist Statement:

This past year I lost two remarkable people in my life to different illnesses. My cousin, Rebekah, passed away at the age of 21 from complications with Cavernous Angioma; a lemon sized ball of tangled blood vessels located very close to the brain stem which makes it imposable to remove. Over time she lost the ability to walk, talk and eat on her own. It was very painful for me to watch because she was my best friend while growing up. We were inseparable as young children.

Just two months after Rebekah’s death, my great grandma Gee Gee, also passed away at the age of 86. She was a wonderful great grandmother. She always was able to make me laugh during the time I spent with her when I was growing up. She passed away from old age and complications from smoking for a good portion of her life.

I have struggled to come to terms with the fact that I might not have spent enough time with them while they were still here on earth. Wrestling through this, I have come to realize the importance of fleeting, day to day, moments spent with loved ones. Time is something that our culture does not value to the fullest extent. As a culture, we are okay with wasting hours on our phones just scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We need to put down our phones and enjoy the people around us whether that be a meaningful conversation or going out and making memories.

I decided to make the book, The World As I Know It, containing photography of mundane objects that have been abandoned, worn, weathered and over grown as a visual diary of my path to understanding these loses. The different techniques of photography in my work represents the passage of time. The subjects of the photographs represent the idea of disease and the way it takes over the body just as nature takes over man-made structures.

ER -