The two photographs of paintings I have included above are from Year 2 of my course. They both explore the idea of remembering the past in our every day lives. Both of them were painted from photographs of a set up of imagery relating to my family’s history. One (A Commonplace Memory) is an actual photo frame in my house, whereas the other (Realms of Memory) was staged as I accumulated memory objects (old photographs, books, albums, etc.) and arranged them in a display. These were probably two of my favourite works from last year. I think the subject matter, the composition and the style of them really encapsulated the point I was trying to get across; that memory and the past run through our day-to-day lives together. Whether we stumble across it naturally (such as smelling a scent from your childhood, or hearing a song you once heard on holiday) or whether it is done as a staged process (sitting down with a loved one and flicking through a photo album), it is all the same. The past is not really the past, but is congruent with us and our lives.
The other image I have included in this post (above) is one which I worked on during lockdown. The title is To See the World in a Grain of Sand and is taken from William Blake’s poem ‘Auguries of Innocence’. I chose this title as one of the other lines in the poems goes on to say “[to] Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand//and Eternity in an hour”. I think this coincides with my work quite well as it too suggests this concept of time being manipulate by us.
The photograph was one I took a while ago and revisited over Lockdown. It is the view from my bedroom window, but seen through a small glass ball. What really intrigued me about this photo was how something so familiar (the view out of my bedroom window) was rendered so unfamiliar simply by looking at it with a new perspective. I think this too relates to memory and the past as we can change and manipulate our view of the past simply by looking at it through a new perspective.
Also over lockdown, I have been exploring and developing my drawing skills, as I would really like to extend my drawing portfolio over this year. One artist I’ve looked at in particular is Paula Rego (there will probably be another post specifically for her work in the near future). The way she composes her work as well as uses them to tell a story really captured my imagination and I think there could be a lot there that could influence my own practice.
