Receptacles for Memory - Carnival of Monsters, Bartons, Chilwell, Nottingham
When I go from room to room I sometimes seem to leave my memory behind and have to retrace my steps to retrieve it. It is usually where I left it ! I imagine how many different memories may be left in rooms, waiting to be accessed. I have made delicate receptacles to convey this idea in a visual form.
The fragile hanging containers encircle the memory with mohair. The structures are evocative of memory and how we remember the same thing slightly differently each time. Obscured and sometimes hazy, the memories are there, waiting to be found.
Partially hidden inside the mohair are objects which are suggestive of my childhood home. Rooms would be thick with smoke as neighbours gathered to drink tea and gossip. My unheated bedroom was so cold that I often woke to find frost on the inside of the window.
Rooms seem to hold emotional memories too, depending on the relationships of the people living in them. The receptacles suggest why it might be difficult to leave our homes and past memories. Do we take them with us or lock them away forever ?