"If I distrust my memory - neurotics, as we know, do so to a remarkable extent, but normal people have every reason for doing so as well - I am able to supplement and guarentee its working by making a note in writing. In that case the surface upon which this note is preserved, the pocket-book or sheet of paper, is as it were a materialized portion of my mnemic apparatus, which I otherwise carry about with me invisibly. I have only to bear in mind the place where this 'memory' has been deposited and I can then 'reproduce' it at any time I like, with the certainty that it will have remained unaltered and so have escaped the possible distortions to which it might have been subjected in my actual memory."
The 'Mystic Writing-pad' pg 429 By Sigmund Freud.
This article and specifically this quote aided my creative process regarding the use of family imagery. I relate this to both the morphing of memory, others selected & distorted memory since childhood & that of the fading memory due to my Dads dementia.
I looked to the work of renowned French sculptor, painter, film maker & photographer Christian Boltanski (1944 ~2021) who was part of the Conceptual Art Movement.
He stated that, ‘My work is about the fact of dying, but it’s not about the Holocaust itself.’
Some of his extremely powerful black & white imagery was spot lighted & had a look of obituaries. I like that he used everyday objects & their fragile make up. His use of exposed wiring as not to ‘Shush’ it out the way or out of view. He used a old rusty biscuit tin that envocoked an air of childhood memory about it & doubled as that of an urn.
His work is said to stand for the importance of our collective memory and open up a space of remembrance.
I like how he describes memory’s kept in a family album & in reference to families. ‘ We don’t learn anything about family life for twenty~five years, these images of family rituals bring us back to our own memories, to ourselves, all the family albums, inside of a given society, are almost identical, they do not represent the reality, but the reality of the family album.’
I tried to source photographic negatives from family, unsuccessfully. I created my own from taking shots of original black & white photographs & also kept a digital file where I printed off photocopies then took shots on different sized film. I planned to erect a scallfolding around my photographic negative sculpture created from bamboo in style of Asian building practices. I am aiming to depict the fragility & stability proven in East Asia.
I had originally planned to have a charring bowl of bone/wood inside my negative sculpture, however negatives are highly volitile even though less so since changing from nitrate to asertate film in 1950s.
My alternative measure was to change to a mister, the problem being was the water droplets so I started to source a transparent water resistant textile to sew a second skin inside the sculpture.
2087
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