Out Of Place (2008/9)
Mapping of a Lost Place
This work is an assemblage of several elements brought together in an installation, consisting of drawings, paintings, photographs and prints, some of which are found archival images.
Each element retains its own function, while all elements come together in an attempt to create an open-ended story or narrative, partly real and partly fictional. It is for the viewer to decide which associations this may bring up: perhaps questioning the fabrication of place, memory, roots or journeys.
Wall drawing as part of my installation is perhaps the most ephemeral or ‘transient’ element - I enjoy wall drawings because they ‘do not belong’ to me and do not require conservation or archiving.
The use of archive images is important in my enquiry of how memory and place are recorded. Maps are essential in the attempt to record place, although this attempt is always a personal one, never objective, as our relation to place is always individual.
The paintings start with a photograph (own or found) and develop through layers of paint, mark making and erasure of previous layers. This ‘archaeology’ of the painting process is a metaphor for the process of memory creation, which gives glimpses into the past, while never revealing the whole story – leaving only traces.
