The reinvention and recreation of remembered imagery is made present through recycled fabric, my pigment, and stitching, my binding medium. In my work time is a non-linear event which is given life by both the figurative images derived from found photographs, and captured memories of past events from my own childhood. Stories blossom from this relationship. Old photographs reveal evidence of a past presence. They are records of historical details once a part of everyday life that are visually lost without their recovery in the snapshots. The worn fabrics belong to the same language of experience, exposing the value of memory for the present, in layers of existence. I find myself often blinded in a world where I have become a myriad of usernames and passwords. “Open, Simsim” investigates the transformation from contemporary society into tangible recollections. The transcription from time into space and in time from past into present recalls the treasury of remembrance. Aliza Lelah was born in 1982 outside of Chicago. She attended the University of Vermont where she majored in Studio Art, spending a period of time in Florence, Italy. It was there that she began exploring the use of fabric in her work. She went on to receive an MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2007, and now maintains a studio in Washington DC. She shows her work regionally, nationally, and internationally.