Memory and identity are themes explored in Tattoo Trails, a series that considers how exiles, separated from their homeland, navigate their lives.   
    
How does migration affect a refugee psychologically? Do they face feelings of alienation, isolation and displacement? How are their cultural identities impacted by their separation from their homeland?   
    
In this series, isolated figures populate an unknown landscape, symbolizing the uncertain journeys that refugees often navigate. Often stitched into the surface of the map, these figures find themselves inhabiting a transformed landscape. A path of uncertainty could await them as there is no specific geographic compass to guide them.   
    
At times, our personal and collective lived experiences can present immense challenges that are difficult to navigate, much like what refugees can encounter. I invite viewers to consider the unexpected directions that their lives have taken and to reflect on them.   
    
Like tattoos, our life experiences can remain permanently within us.   
    
    
Adrienne Der Marderosian   
2024