“Goodbye Payton” (2023) curates the endings, beginnings, and middle of a crumbling relationship using audio recordings, transcripts, and hand-written letters. An entirely web-based piece, the structure is elusive and restrictive, hiding portions of the text and entire web pages from the inattentive viewer. This obstruction ultimately mirrors the perspective of an outsider looking into the relationship. Every relationship has a unique reason for ending; d’Achiardi’s treatment of media introduces enough abstraction that the viewer is able to meditate on their own experiences with the end of a valued relationship, despite the personal and intimate source material.
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Digital America interviewed Emily d’Achiardi in November 2023.
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Emily is a new media artist working toward her BA in Art History and Film at Reed College. Her net art is at once a meticulous archival collection and a jumbled box of mementos living under the bed. In these digital fragments, Emily’s reluctance to let go of the past becomes a practice of grief and an exploration into obsession.
