The video (Reconstruction) deals with the reconstruction of memory through the photographic image that is represented by the image of my deceased father. The videos are a comprised of series of photographs that decompose (video 2) and recompose (video 1) the image. The progression of the first video ‘Reconstruction’ echoes the relationship between memory and time, while the second video ‘Deconstruction’ highlights the impact of family photographs on memory. Consequently, family photographs have become images of memory by alteration. In this way, the audience is able to see the relative notion of time that applies to both photographs and memory.
Video 1 reconstruction
video 2 deconstruction
“The Memory Box” transfigures the abstract theme of memory through a physical installation.
The memory is never entirely lost and family snapshots are a means of recalling buried past traces.
The process of Deconstruction-Reconstruction reflects a period of psychological adjustment and reassessment towards recognition of the past.
“The Memory Box”
Abstract
Specialists in social history, psychology, semiology, philosophy, sociologists, ethnography, science and photography, as well as, artists through different art practices have explored the topic of memory. The purpose of this essay is to use my family archives to analyse a process of remembering and through a theoretical investigation highlight the scope and variety of domains directly or indirectly linked to the topic of memory. Even though I draw directly on my family archives, this essay brings out new insights regarding the use of family snapshots in general in the process of recalling memory.
The first chapter “Perceiving family photographs: a matter of senses” addresses key issues related to remembering through touch and vision perception. The first argument explores the tangible and intangible aspects of photographs, leading to the consideration that family photographs are bridges between ‘the real space’ (a tangible object) and ‘the illusionary space’ (an intangible image). After this, I focus on the indexical character of photographs and their interpretations, a focus which bears in mind that family photographs are silence. In this way, I make the suggestion that human memory narrates family snapshots, which clarifies the idea that family snapshots always need a reader who remembers and narrates.
The second chapter “Family photographs: from life to eternity” develops the idea of preserving family memory for the purposes of an unpredictable future. In this section, I develop the argument that family photographs mirror the dying process. I propose that the camera is a mechanical time machine, recording a path towards the end that leads to a consideration of Barthes’ term ‘certificate of presence’ to ‘certificates of death’ stemming from an analysis of my own practice. My argument is that family albums are ‘testaments’ towards eternity. Then, the essay analyses both my and my mother’s memory in order to underline that memory is subjected to error, distortions and oblivion, which are balanced by the imagination, shifting family history into fiction and family myths.
By and large, I have transfigured the abstract theme of memory through a physical installation. The memory is never entirely lost and family snapshots are a means of recalling buried past traces. The process of Deconstruction-Reconstruction reflects a period of psychological adjustment and reassessment towards recognition of the past.
Case study
This essay attempts to challenge the silences of family photographs through an analysis of my process of making an installation, which forms the backbone of it. The creative process illustrates a concept, realized by a mixed media installation, which is laid out as follows: From the corridor adjoining the room where the installation is located, the audience can see a black curtain covering an entrance, with a black label on the wall beside it. On this label (See Figure 2) is inscribed: “The Memory Box”. It is written by hand in white ink, like a bright trace in the darkness. The label invites the audience to come in, while the inscription suggests the audience may open or close the lockets. Can the public really touch the art? What does that mean? This is probably the beginning of the experience. After pulling opens the curtain and entering the room, the audience find themselves in a dark box, with two videos are projected opposite each other. The videos, the content of which I shall describe later, create light, acting like flashes from a camera, or rather flashbacks, illuminating the suspended objects in the space. Initially, they can barely be seen. One’s eyes are not used to this darkness. The violence of the jerking light is disturbing. After a few seconds, however, the eyes acclimatise and it is possible to see clearly. The audience can distinguish a number of suspended lockets: some are opened and others closed. The viewer heads toward them. There is a picture inside. The one next to it is closed. They remember the inscription. They open it up: No picture. In the centre, one locket seems different. When the viewer come closer to it, they realise it is not a locket. It is a clock pendant. The glass of the clock is broken. The time has stopped at 8.25.
In the first part of this essay, I look at family photographs as material objects unchanging through time, (aside of course from the ageing process that is exacerbated through their being handled). To do so, I consider that still images follow the same process as a computer’s memory if consider that the printed object never change on its own. By referring to theory of perception and the memory process I aim to address the following questions: what is moving through time if images remain the same visually? Is it humans’ projections onto the photographs that give them meaning? I focus on the narration created by our memories in perceiving family snapshots, whilst also considering the fact that the process of remembering has the potential to shift the photographs’ meanings. In the second section of the essay, I will develop a critical perspective on death related to family photographs by referring to Barthes’ “certificate of presence”. I suggest that by disjunction they are also certificates of death; I will also look at family albums as a testament towards eternity.
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Your writing is fascinating — a sort of organized and “intellectual” (sorry, I can’t think of a better word) attempt to do, I think, what I do willy-nilly. And thanks for noticing my blog.
Thanks for your comment – It is always a pleasure for me to have the viewpoint of other.
Wow…you have really taken this to the next level. I can see a movie about someone using the process to find out what happened to a loved one who died under mysterious circumstances.
Thanks you for your comment –
If my family photographs have been tools used to prompt and develop the process of Deconstruction-Reconstruction, in the same vein, my installation employed to transcend the abstract concept of memory. In my making of a mixed media room installation, I aim to engage my audience physically as well as intellectually in the process of remembering.
You can see the video of the installation “The Memory Box Installation” http://youtu.be/eVBNS5KcpeA
“The Memory Box” echoes various ways of representing the memory visually, underlining its complexity and uniqueness what brings to conclusion that define an accurate general process of memory is irremediably impossible: the memory of an individual is as unique as his DNA. The understanding of memory is only possible at an individual level. “The Memory Box” is a concept through which I have tried to reveal some part of the memory. This installation remains abstract and subjective for the audience in order to force them to engage with their own memory to narrate the installation. From this point on, the audience is able to tell, hear and feel their own family stories, while mine becomes muted and silence. This is the end of my story and the beginning of the viewers’ family stories.
It is always a pleasure to see how viewers perceive my work – Don’t hesitate to share your feeling about “the Memory box installation”. http://youtu.be/eVBNS5KcpeA
Shared. Thank you!