Today I have been reading about Tracey Emin – I read a chapter from the book Tracey Emin, 20 Years by Patrick Elliott and Julian Shnabel. I picked out some phrases and paragraphs that i found interesting and this inspired me to experiment with my personal objects.
I have been buying frames from the RSPCA charity shop in central ipswich and tried addig my own personal memories to the frames instead of photographs.
The results were interesting but i dont feel that the images evoke emotion in the same way as Emin.
It struck me how interesting the frames look without anything in them. The purpose of photo frames is to store a memory, to hold a cherished moment, to remember that moment. The empty frame suggests that the memory is not there. Has it been forgotten? Has it been destroyed? Has it been replaced? I like that the empty frame raises these questions. I also like the idea that the empty frame challenges “what is art” as you would expect to see a painting or drawing or photograph inside the fram for it to be considered art.
I found another box in my garage made of the same type of wood, mahogany, in my attic, which I used for a piece in college to represent the brain in a mixed media piece of found personal objects. I had stored memories in this part of the box this time without a lock so it gave the viewer an opportunity to be able to access the memory.
I was playing around with some ideas and decided to use a doll which my friend had sent me upon me asking for memories that relate to herself and I. I made the doll when I was around 16 out of fabric.
I put the doll inside the box with some empty lorazepam boxes to represent my previous addiction to prescription drugs.
Again I do not plan to lock the box as this gives the viewer a choice of whether they look inside or not.
Around the box are other memories, which do not relate to each other but create a narrative as the viewer begins to make associations between the objects.
I purchased some old keys from an antique shop near Cognac, France. I was fascinated by the way in which they all unlock their own unique door, but no one knows where the door is, and they now have no use.
I decided I’d like to experiment with them this year as part of my degree show project.
I’ve had several ideas about what to do with them but first of all I wanted to play around with the arrangement of keys.
I found a box of memories in my bedroom at home and this is what i made for my GCSE resistant materials project. I made it to store all of my diaries and other precious memories so that i can lock them and keep them safe where no one else can access them.
I had the idea to use the box with the keys as an installation. The funny thing is i cant find the actual key which opens the box. I like the fact that this adds an intrigue to the concept as the memories are unobtainable, locked away.
This got me thinking about all of the things I use to record memory, so I decided to start arranging these items in a similar way that I arranged my artist research; this was quite shocking as I didnt realise quite how many things I use to record memory!
So using the medium of a blog for my critical review is very apt, as I have chosen Memory as a subject for my dissertation and studio practice.
I chose this subject as memory is such an important part in my life.
Most of my life is spent going over what has happened in the past. It is very rare that I think about the present, and the future is only thought of as a fantasy of how I want it to be.
So my starting point was to gather some artist research on artists who deal with memory to inspire me and to get rid of that blank wall in my studio space.
