Amy Friend

Do parallel universes exist?
The photographs in this series draw on diverse subject matter and imagery from across multiple time-periods created from a blend of vernacular photographs and my own photography. The title of the series, Multi-verse, references what cosmologists and physicists describe as parallel universes, where alternate realities exist. The photographs here relate to the idea of a multiverse through their variances in time, location, subject matter and visual disruptions via the altered surface and emanating light. In addition to the specifics of the multiverse definition, I play with the meaning of the word “multiverse” by breaking it apart (multi-verse) to reference the numerous stories or “verses” we may fall into through these photographs. As I worked on this project, the ongoing environmental destruction, political turmoil, and human rights violations (to name a few and not lightly), played a part in how I related to the imagery. My response was initially to create or source oppositional imagery presenting simple moments from everyday life, moments of tranquility, beauty, but as I worked on the series I felt it necessary to include photographs that are capable of suggesting or referencing undercurrents of turbulence - and an uneasiness that coats all I thought I knew. The title of each photograph serves to guide or link to this aspect of the work, while leaving room for the photographs to transcend any concrete reading. The meaning of each image shifts and continues to shift with their “solidity” becoming more and more malleable. I reference the past, the here and now, the visible and invisible, literally and poetically, albeit not through overtly political photographs. Photography holds a currency of possibility. In this series, I work to find meaning in the chaos, to be with it and to search for an alternate story from where we are - a multiverse.

I would hold you in my hand, but I cannot touch you

Wayfinding in cold light

Let the stones guide the way

Through light

There is so much of everything

Is anything real

Abandoned masquerade

Snake oil

I hope you are there

Solid air

I would hold you in my hand, but I cannot touch you

Wayfinding in cold light

Let the stones guide the way

Through light

There is so much of everything

Is anything real

Abandoned masquerade

Snake oil

I hope you are there

Solid air