Time and Space and Memory

Does everyone view their memories and experiences like a film reel in their mind? What does the time and space between the projector and the projected look like? Is an altered memory an untrue memory – does that even matter?

I lay on my back looking up at a cloudy, blue sky: surrounded by tall grasses, wildflowers and weeds.

A single image. Undeniably cinematized: altered and filtered for aesthetic pleasure. Maybe rooted in a memory, maybe a dream, or maybe a scene that I’ve written, read or watched.

Maybe all of the above.

I see it in a poem, on a screen, in a photograph – and in my mind all of these sources come together to make something not quite new, still familiar, but ultimately different, than the original thing. A different image, a different memory, a different experience. Altered, influenced and changed by time and space. The time and space it takes for my brain to pull forth this image from the labyrinth of my mind. The time and space that allows for new experiences and interpretations to alter, influence and change what originally was.

The time and space I am exploring in my work.

By exploring photographs, building maquettes and collaging images – some from personal photos, others from familiar media – I create new compositions, which become large acrylic underpaintings. Using layers of glazes and washes, I cause the underpaintings to fade and recede then, by adding thicker paint, I pull details forward. This pushing back and pulling forward, adding and reducing, explores the tension between what happened and what we remember; between the familiar and the experienced; between a scene from a favourite movie, and a favourite memory.

Between desire, and reality.

*Time and Space and Memory was my Thesis body of work, created in the final year of my undergraduate program at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and was displayed in their 101st Annual Graduate Exhibition (May 2016).