I had a few ideas running through my head at the thought of creating an installtion piece, my ideal one to be creating a room with four walls and really getting the feel of nostalgia in there, however I did not get enough space for that idea, however that does not matter because i like to work with what i am given so, i thought about creating a wall of a room which would be just as powerfull in my mind.
I thought about creating a shelf for each person that i have a passport picture for. Making these shelfs personal to the person so that the viewer can have a better take on them and i was also going to incoporate a memory i have of the person into the work for instance as you can see on the sketch i was going to have a large pictire with the passport picture sitting in the corner of the frame (something that i have discussed earlier). Or using a key cabnit for the representation of my granparents.
Then one day all of a sudden i decided to, still create a wall of a room but present the passport pictures on the wall in frames and connect them all to a telelphone that sits on a table as if people have been coming to reconnect with their memories, of these people.
From creating work based on memory, my dissertations and the subjects of it have helped me move forward with my work. From Lousie Bourgeios’ Destruction of the Father, this installation piece so dark and thought provoking got me into thinking about creating a space of my own. Something from my memory like Bourgeois, it was like she could travel though time back into her past, whilst she was creating her work and that is a quality I think shines through in my work. Also the research of Tracey Emin also famous for her installion work. I find Emin’s work more raw at times, her work is like a diary of sorts.
I began my project with square collages as i have shown in an earlier post. I used old family photos in the collages and i felt as though the photos were the more important part of them, they had more strength. i have since explored family photos and came to see myself quite taken with passport photos. I find them very unique from the starkness but more importantly the reality of them, as they capture the person in question in their most basic form, capturing them in their everyday.
Seeing a passport photo of a stranger, their is certainly intrigue, however what interests me is seeing and keeping a passport photo of someome you know, its more than having a photo of someone smiling and laughing these photos seem to be keepsakes.
I have for a while now been considering creating an instillation piece, perhaps creating a room. the more i thought aboit it the more the idea grew. To create an immersed environment as opposed to something flat on a page is something i was very interested in. Memories and the way they are formed and remembered deserve to be portrayed as the multi-layered fragments of ones self that they are.
To create a 3D instillation that takes the viewer away from the sometimes cold and clinical atmosphere of an exhibition space and throwing the viewer into a little bit of my world.
Lately i have been focusing on these passport pictures as momentoms, acting as an object that helps the veiwer remember.
Certain passport pictures have been sitting in my memory frozen without me even realising for years. One particular memory was of my Great Grandmas living room of where she had a large photo of her husband and just in the corner of the frame was a little passport picture of my father. This only exists in my mind now, however this is a common thing people do with these sort of photos. Also this is something that i would like to bring into my final exhibit. The nostalgia, and remembering.