Isolation Matrix
by Amy Schleunes
Isolation Matrix arose out of my attempt to re-create an encounter I remember only in fragments and understand only in part. The juxtaposition of image and idea allows for many possible narratives, as do the strategies for reading the piece (left to right, top to bottom, center to periphery, etc.), each of which yields a different interpretation. In this way the poster evokes the instability of emotional memories that seem to shift or sharpen or erode over time. Like much of my recent writing, this project is concerned with the mind’s turbulence in the midst of intensity, the collisions of image and reason that confuse our understanding of the past.
Amy Schleunes is a writer of prose and plays. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Fourth Genre, The Missouri Review, Indiana Review, and other literary journals, and her plays have been developed at theater festivals across the U.S. She lives in Nicaragua, where she’s attempting to finish a book and collaborating on a play at the Escuela de Comedia y el Mimo, a nonprofit theatrical training center for at-risk youth in Granada.
Originally appeared in the online supplement to the Beyond Category issue 43.2 - 44.1