Gaia Togo

‘Runaway’ explores the emotional and existential weight of distance. It reflects my journey from Italy to Canada, examining how distance continuously shapes identity, relationships, and self-perception. Inspired by Sartre’s Nausea, I saw myself in its protagonist, Antoine Roquentin, who struggles with dissociation, existential uncertainty, exhaustion, and the impermanence of memory.
Using cyanotypes, I transform digital memories into tangible artifacts, an attempt to reconnect with fragments of my past. This process reflects the instability of identity, often resulting in distorted, deconstructed, and imperfect images, mirroring the effects of time and separation. Each print holds a tension between presence and absence, past and present.
“Runaway” is a reflection on the past eight years, marked by change, existential crises, and the struggle to maintain connections, both with others and myself, across distances.