"Beast of Memory and Imagination" Angela and Ira Browning

Beast of Memory and Imagination, 2025

Hand-embroidered photography

12 x 12”

$450.00

In Beast of Memory and Imagination the artist has augmented a photograph taken by her father during the Vietnam War in 1967. The photo depicts an unknown soldier sitting in front of a camouflage canvas tarp. His eyes seem to be unfocused. Is he lost in thought of a recent hostile encounter, or wishing for the distant comforts of home? The hand-embroidered beastly faces that have been added to the composition represent the memories, either real or imagined, that arise for a Vietnam veteran or any other military personnel that has had to cope with the violence of combat when they rekindle thoughts of the past and relive those moments. The faces appear to originate from the thoughts of the soldier depicted and fly out and toward the viewer in a menacing and threatening manner.