This May, STATE Gallery and Studios is proud to present Through My Eyes: A Memoir of My Childhood, a new collection of works by Nashville-based collage artist T.C.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, May 25th with a public reception from 6pm to 9pm, and run through June 25th, 2024. T.C. is a 2023/2024 recipient of the STATE Gallery + Studios program at The Forge, an arts nonprofit dedicated to advocacy among Nashville’s creative communities.

As its title suggests, Through My Eyes is an immersive tour of T.C.’s childhood memories, exploring the pivotal moments of the artist’s youth through a joyful, nostalgic and sometimes fantastical lens.

The exhibition evokes a real-life pop-up book, with various scenes constructed in T.C’s many different forms of collage, including wall pieces, sculptures, interactive installations and hand-constructed clothing. We are able to wander through the artist’s childhood home, referenced through their front steps, kitchen, living room and bedroom - and walk down the street just outside, vibrant and alive, teeming with the energy of youthful exuberance.

Augmenting the exhibition’s immersive quality is a variety of accompanying sensory experiences. What are the sounds of one’s childhood street? How does the neighborhood feel, look, smell or taste - and how are those formative memories documented, to be revisited as an adult? More broadly, how are these experiences different from one person to another, and how does that impact our intersections?

Through visiting T.C.’s childhood, we are invited to travel back in time, remembering through shared experiences and touchstone emblems —a cereal box, a game controller, or even a puzzle— that individual histories often coalesce with a larger collective memory.

Through My Eyes: A Memoir of My Childhood opens Saturday, May 25th; please contact the gallery and Artistic Director Alyssa A. Beach (alyssa@theforgenashville.org) for more information!