Past Present

This issue of Past Present takes process as its central subject, tracing how the act of making, tending, and returning to a work generates meaning over time. Sandra Eula Lee discusses her ongoing series The Walking Mountain, comparing her installations to a musical score or garden that shifts with each iteration. Shaina Nez's circular story Mother is Silver, Father is Iron embeds the cyclical nature of familial memory in its narrative structure. Ye Zhu's Procession traveled through an artist residency and a Buddhist retreat, each context charging the work with new significance.

The issue also examines how physical touch, archival material, and cultural knowledge function as artistic methods. Samara Weaver's body-printed and plant-fused works leave indexical traces; Tabitha Arnold's Mill Town traces the labor history of a Chattanooga textile factory through tapestry; and Olivia Block's Lowlands projects archival Yellowstone footage as ghost negatives onto a Gilded Age interior. Essays on Leo Tecosky, Aislinn Pentecost-Farren, Jeremy Frey, and Janna Añonuevo Langholz address contemporary interventions with historical objects, basketry traditions, and colonial-era commemoration.