On occasion, while rummaging through the dusty box of childhood memories locked deep within my brain, I will stumble upon a piece of nostalgia, which once remembered, rips through my mind tearing open the locks on memories that have been long captured and momentarily forgotten. I use these dislodged relics as a catalyst for the style, aesthetic and content of my work. I attempt to re-contextualize and reinterpret these memories, giving the recollections of my childhood a new foothold in contemporary culture, as well as providing a physical permanence to the ephemerality of memory and nostalgia.

Growing up in the 80’s, my memories—Tiffany’s “I think we’re alone now”, President Reagan on tv, the first Shuttle launch, Hypercolor t-shirts—give me the impression of a simpler time and a feeling of innocence. This innocence, seen through the lenses of childhood nostalgia, is a distorted reality confused by longing for a time past. After all, as an adult I am aware it is a period in history that is anything but innocent. It is this that leads me to create work that expresses the duality of my recalled history. Using personal memories mixed with cultural reference, I create a rich tapestry of shared nostalgia in order to activate the viewers memories of a time gone by, allowing their recollections to grab hold of them and move them to a place within their own mind, perhaps a place that has been locked away and un visited for quite some time.

David Gazdowicz