We collect souvenirs in an attempt to preserve precious moments, to remember the people and the places we care about. However, the explosion of reproduction technologies paradoxically has rendered it frequently difficult to distinguish true memories from imagined. In the three video installations presented in Imaginary Souvenirs, Scott Kildall explores this paradox by using familiar imagery to challenge common presumptions about memory and expectation.

For Something to Remind Me, Kildall asked his subjects to pose for a snapshot. They smiled awkwardly for the camera, but instead of taking a still picture, Kildall recorded several seconds of video. The resulting images are full of nervous anticipation, palpable unease, and disappointment.

Keep it Together, a sculptural audio/video piece, explores psychological trauma and fragmented memories. The video loop begins with the demolition of a cinder block followed by a determined but hopeless attempt to reconstruct it. The repeated action recalls personal loss, disaster, and destruction, as well as the cycle of creation.

In Future Memories, in-between moments from Hollywood films are spliced together into 2-minute dreamlike narratives. Birds fly over a factory at dusk; a lone tree stands in the middle of a rippling lake; rain pours against garbage on a deserted street. Stripped of color and removed from their original contexts, the clips are nearly impossible to identify, but they remain vaguely familiar, and evoke novel associations.

These video mementos recall events and emotions that are familiar but not easily defined. They encourage us to revisit the experiences and desires of our past, the virtual trinkets we have stashed away.