Mark Peterman

Spaces in the Shadows That Cannot Be Illuminated
2023-ongoing

Spaces in the Shadows That Cannot Be Illuminated is a series of photographs of hand-built 1:12 scale environments reconstructed from memory. The work explores how memory preserves, reframes, and mythologizes the past. These spaces represent locations that have become inseparable from key moments in my life, ranging from childhood through middle age.

Drawing from memories of growing up in the Midwest and the transition into adulthood, the work revisits suburban homes, apartments, and other everyday spaces that have become vessels of personal history. Rather than serving as exact recreations, the models reflect the subjective nature of memory: how recollection compresses time, omits details, and transforms lived experience.

Viewed from the perspective of middle age, these reconstructed spaces become a means of confronting change, loss, aging, and the impossibility of returning to the past. Occupying the space between observation and invention, the photographs examine how personal history is preserved, reconstructed, and transformed through the act of remembering. Ultimately, this is a project about how memory changes as we move through life, and how the places we carry with us become part of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

Website www.markpetermanfineart.com

Collaborating Artist Mark Peterman

Late for dinner, 10pm, age 6

My Childhood Bedroom, age 7

Family Basement, age 8

Leaving Home, age 10

Another Dead-end Job, age 22

Breaking up, age 25

Sharing Memories of Grandma, age 32

The Terror of Becoming a Father, age 36

Everyday Studio Crisis, age 45

Another Hospital Visit, Age 52

Late for dinner, 10pm, age 6

My Childhood Bedroom, age 7

Family Basement, age 8

Leaving Home, age 10

Another Dead-end Job, age 22

Breaking up, age 25

Sharing Memories of Grandma, age 32

The Terror of Becoming a Father, age 36

Everyday Studio Crisis, age 45

Another Hospital Visit, Age 52