It is common for photographs to become mementos: objects that live in special frames, positioned on a mantle or an altar, or placed in a dedicated box in the back of the closet. Rooney underscores this phenomenon in her work. She selects photographs from her personal archive and presents them with unique frames or armatures, some crafted from old books, some built anew from cloth, metal, glass, or ceramic materials. The resulting composite portraits are gifts or offerings to their subjects—not because they are literally handed over to them, but because they refer especially to them in their particular presentations.
Gallery label from Being: New Photography, 2018