ABSTRACT MEMORY
Is a journey to craft a profound visual memoir that commemorates family history through an extensive collection of artwork. This endeavour draws inspiration from interviews, vintage photographs, and a treasure trove of collected ephemera.
The Project: A Journey of Art and Memory
Why I'm Embarking on This Journey
I'm captivated by the intriguing blend of known and unknown elements within our ancestral stories. It's fascinating how stories are crafted, how we construct our identities through these narratives, and how we share them. Often, our personal lineage is stitched together from single, subjective memories of individuals, which can't possibly capture the holistic biographies of our ancestors. Our understanding of the lives, achievements, legacies, dreams, and truths of those who have passed often carries a childhood perspective, rendering them partly fictional.
My work is an embodiment of my love for nostalgia and the creation of deeper connections. My paintings serve as both representations and reminders of the profound power of relationships and connections.
Research underscores that the happiest, most fulfilling, and longest lives are often deeply rooted in the strength of personal relationships. In today's global community, as we've grown more isolated from physical community interactions, our connections with family and friends have been impacted and weakened.
What I Aspire to Achieve
My aspiration is to encapsulate the essence of my personal origin story in a visual format. This endeavour seeks to preserve cherished memories while crafting artworks that offer a synthesis and perspective informed by my own recollections and through interviews. The aim is to infuse these works with emotional depth, evoke physical sensations, and elicit visceral responses.
I endeavour to commemorate memories and histories through abstract art, showcasing sensations and feelings of experiences and, at times, even creating portraits of the people themselves. I'm drawn to include ephemeral elements such as lace clippings, pieces of curtains, articles of clothing, embroidered handkerchiefs, feathers from night tables, and even traces of dog fur. My desire is to capture the colours, the scents, and the vivid memories within each painting.
The Creative Journey Ahead
In the process of connecting with my far-flung family to conduct interviews, collect ephemera, photographs, and engage in personal conversations, I hope to deepen our relationships and gain profound insights into our origin stories. Concurrently, I'll gather materials and conduct research to bring to life a large-scale project comprising 20 to 30 paintings—a Visual Memoir Heirloom. This treasure will serve as a timeless testament for both current and future generations to explore.
Selected past works created from family photographs shown below.
