Art From London Markets, a-n feature

What are the lost stories of Oblivion and Rememberance? Completed work

In a life, in a culture, in an individual? And what does it mean when you have no  access to or power over who you are? When from the outside it can seem that all you are doing is waiting or fighting?  When the individual is just a small part in the whole.

Especially during grief, remembering how huge nature is, like when standing at the edge of a great expanse of water, is a beautiful thing.  There are times when the only power you have is to peer into the depths and let them soothe your soul.

This painting was based on the narrative of the river in Ponte de Lima, it was believed to be the Leith, the village on the other side so suductive, that it had to be deathly, so there would be no return.  And we were talking about soldiers, who I suppose must have a relationship with death that is particular.  Roman Soldiers who had got as far as Portugal, and so that relationship must also be real, they must have had close up experiences by the time they reached there.  And it seems that death was both beautiful and frightening to them.  Understood to be permanent, and the beauty to be illusory?  And then the brave captain, who beat oblivion.  But in reaching beauty and retaining a link to the living beauty triumphed.

Does beauty triumph?

These were Roman soldiers,  they are all long dead now.

The universal grief are all the lost stories of oblivion, the individual stories noone remembers any longer, or half remembers, the regrets and hopes of history.

The barriers to communication which meant they were not preserved, repression, violence, prejudice or simply neglect that allow a persons stories to die with them.  To become lost with them in the midst of dementia or death.

And the counter point, well it isn’t really a captain sallying forth, it is simple things like family and friends, writing, painting, music and poetry.  The power of the powerful may be remembered through architecture, monolithic sculptures and the shapes of our streets, laws made in their name…… but even then for how long?   Individual stories need a more nuanced listening to.