Feature photo by Ariyannah Artis

Story by Ariyannah Artis

Silence filled the air of an MTSU lecture hall as Ahndraya Parlato discussed the raw emotions behind her photographs in her artist talk on Wednesday.  

Influenced by the events of her mother’s suicide, her grandmother’s murder and the birth of her daughters, Parlato uses photography to navigate her own self-discovery and the complex feelings that come with being a mother. 

In her earliest book, “A Spectacle, Nothing Strange,” she examines ideas of reality, gender and the unconscious. In this work, Parlato creates a dreamlike world with scenes both natural and unnatural, blurring the lines between what is real and what is imaginary. 

 Raised by a single mother with schizophrenia, Parlato spent much of her younger days trying to negotiate between her mother’s reality and her own. 

“There was the more logical, concrete reality I was being taught at school, and then the ways that my mom interpreted things,” Parlato said.

While making this body of work, she asked herself how to put the viewer into that same position of wondering. 

“Whether or not the image was an accurate representation of what was photographed is actually unimportant,” Parlato said. “What is important is that the moment captured makes sense in a poetic and intuitive way. …” 

The artist highlighted the importance of vulnerability throughout her speech.

“Shame is a really common tactic of subordination,” Parlato said.

Art and stories surrounding women’s trauma often go unnoticed or are deemed unworthy of exploration, making their realities appear less important or worse, fabricated. 

“I’ve often thought about how the movement from victim to fabricator or unreliable narrator continues to shape the ways in which women are viewed both by the medical industry and by society at large,” Parlato said. 

Her latest published work, “Who is Changed and Who is Dead,” currently on display in the Baldwin Photographic Gallery, combines images and text that read like pages from her own diary.   

Shadowy figures, trees, her mother’s ashes, watercolor paintings and her children pull the viewer through what feels like Parlato’s own subconscious. The accompanying texts narrate the artist’s conscious thoughts and fears. 

“Who is Changed and Who is Dead” is arguably Parlato’s most vulnerable work. It examines the experience of motherhood as well her relationship to death, self and childhood, Parlato said.

The title and contents of the book speak to the process of change one experiences when going from being a daughter to being a mother. Those two roles interact with each other, though cannot be separated.  

For Parlato, who lost both her mother and grandmother to tragic deaths, the thought of her and her children’s immortality is something she cannot escape.  

Parlato read an exerpt from her book: “To think how strange it is that both you and your mothers’ deaths were crime scenes, and I pondered what the circumstances around my own death might be.” 

The exhibit elicited mixed emotions. One could argue, however, that this was exactly Parlato’s intention.  

“If the (subject) is complex,” Parlato said, “Then the content should be unruly, and ultimately just ask more questions than it offers answers.” 

“Who is Changed and Who is Dead” remains on display in the Baldwin Photographic Gallery through Dec. 12.

Ariyannah Artis is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.

To contact the Lifestyles Editor, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com. 

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