Sentimental Attachment

Sentimental Attachment is a large scale figurative painting on loose canvas. Using the technique of defamiliarization, rendering the familiar, unfamiliar, Sandwell disrupts any clear narrative, prompting viewers to linger, to search. The images —depicting stuffed animals, pets, and tattoos, and portraits of queer friends—represent intimate moments and portrays platonic queerness in it’s quiet and lived reality. The composition of these images, along with the presence of familiar cultural motifs—such as Charli XCX’s Brat album or commonly worn shoes like Doc Martens, Crocs, and Adidas Superstars—helps to blur the boundaries between the personal and the universal. Even for those who were there, who recognize the people, objects, and places depicted, there is an uncanny sense of rediscovery—as if seeing these moments for the first time, refracted through the tender and thoughtful distortion. Sandwells intention is to illuminate, in both subtle and striking ways, how we can exist in vignettes of each others memories. In this way, Sentimental Attachment serves as a portal to and from a collective memory.