Rachael Banks: The Trail of the Dead

Rachael Banks: The Trail of the Dead is a visual anthology of life and death within the central region of Kentucky. Photographic imagery, surveillance footage, and archived media present the intertwined storylines of a family and white-tailed deer with shared experiences of trauma, and the landscape understood as home.

This project is rooted in the 1999 death of Banks’ second cousin in an alcohol-related automobile collision. The events preceding and following this incident have shaped the artist’s perception of inherited family trauma. Banks’ work references personal memory within her home region of Kentucky, which has one of the highest mortality rates for drugs, alcohol, and suicide in the country.

The imagery of deer living near Banks’ home and family property parallels her family structure. The fawn, a symbol of innocence, references the psychological trauma response of fawning, people-pleasing behavior meant to avoid conflict often developed in childhood. Epigenetics, the study of how behaviors and environment change how genes work, and folklore, beliefs passed through generations by word of mouth, provide context for the influence of family history.

Banks’ observations of inherited trauma and its mythological connection to nature manifest in a curious anxiety over the fate of the next generation of her family. The tangled presentation of images simultaneously references the present and alludes to the future—while artifacts of the past linger in the background to provide a visual representation of history and its influence on the artist.

Acknowledging nature’s cruelty and beauty, The Trail of the Dead invites viewers to consider their family history, connection to home, and the impact of those who came before them on who they are today.