Image Transfer Experiments...

 

I wanted to explore other options of using older images without cutting stencils out and taking away some of the detail. To do this I began experimenting with Image Maker by transferring images onto fabrics and experimenting with them this way. I started off experimenting by transferring an image containing me and my sister and brother onto previously dyed fabrics then worked into their faces disfiguring them through the material of silver foiling.

Taking away a person’s face, is taking away a person’s identity making their faces blank, a clean slate, almost like how losing your memory would be. For the experiment above I used white ink to disfigure the faces by applying it directly over their face and letting it seep through. If a decent amount of ink is used, once it has dried cracks begin to appear, I want to work with the idea of cracks and memory and how they work together. What does a person with amnesia actually remember and forget?

  I began to work into disfiguring their faces by applying bleach and leaving it to dry. However, once the bleach has dried it didn’t make a difference to the face; it just changed the areas of coloured fabric. The bleach did not interfere with the image transfer it just sat on top of it, I was disappointed with the results.        

Prints...

These prints were done from a photograph of me when I was about 1 and a half and just getting used to walking; I look unsteady on my feet. This image shows a young innocent child that comes across as lonely. From the prints I have done, I find myself disturbed by them and I’m not sure why, maybe it is just the fact that the prints are of a child that is on her own so young, the black ink colour adds to the disturbed nature of the prints.

Capturing a memory...

 

After experimenting with crowds and faces and also re-reading my research notes, I decided I wanted to make the project more personal by using photographs of me and my family. I wanted these photographs to have a connection with me so that the work I produce has a meaning. Using old photographs is a perfect example of capturing a memory, photographs may fade and even diminish but they are still proof of a moment in time, a memory that can never fully disappear. I began going through some old photo albums and taking photos that I wanted to work with, most of the photographs are of me and my brothers and sisters with the odd appearance of my Mum and Dad. The photographs that involved me and my brothers and sisters were taken from when we was a lot younger, these images are the best ones to take because at that age, I didn’t care how I looked or how I would be perceived because at that age it didn’t matter, nothing mattered.

 

This stencil print was of one of my favourite photographs, it included me with my 2 sisters and 2 brothers, the family has grew since then, I am now 1 of 8. I honestly cannot remember this picture being taken but we all look happy and innocent and from looking at this picture, we haven’t changed much. My brothers haven’t aged at all, they look very similar.

This experiment is very unique; it controls all the elements of: random, spontaneous, fragmented and uncontrolled, words that would be associated with amnesia. I used the ink as a wet media that splattered over a stencil I had cut out. I was unsure and apprehensive about the results but it was an experiment that was worthwhile as the area of my younger brother turned out well and I could still recognise him through the cracks and splatter of the ink.

This ink drawing was situated on top of a chaotic background that represents how an amnesia patient mind would seem to come across. I used the colour brown to portray the idea of an older look, I decide to use the media of ink as it is hard to control when blowing at it through a straw, and this element also represents the idea of losing your memory which is out of a person’s control.

This experiment was about showing the development of how we all grew up and the differences in which we looked then and how we look now. As I know the photographs I can see the separate images clearly but they presentation of them was all wrong, because the image underneath was also black the stencil just merged into the photograph making the overall image abstract and confusing. I like the aspect of placing an image on top to show the developments and changes in people, this would fit in with the idea that when people have amnesia they forget newer memories but would remember people and memories from years ago, so they would remember me from when I was 5 but not now, I would become a stranger. The aspect of memories dying out with cracks appearing of older memories is something I want to explore and develop on within this project.

Faces...

 

This small ink experiment was done to show the crowds of people’s faces that eventually merged into one another. Experts have said that if we dream about a face but we don’t recognise it, odds are it is someone we have seen on the street. I wanted to use this experiment to show this and the idea that we pass by hundreds of people every day, I could easily pass by my little brother or sister, they become unrecognisable, their faces begin to merge in with everyone else in that crowd. I used the inks to connect each person’s face together, I decided to use to red ink as well to represent the idea of each person’s face in the crowd bleeding outwards and coming together as one, their faces bleed into each other’s.     

My Brother...

This is a screen print done in influence of the last time I saw my little before he moved away. I have seen them since then but they changed and became something other than how I remember them. Considering this is the first print of my brother it turned out really well and I can actually tell that it is him! I chose to use the colour black to add depth to the detail and to represent the idea that this memory of my little brother is set and will never fade.

Memory-Clowns

For my starting point I did a lot of research on what can affect other people’s memories. As my experimental work I wanted to begin with what I can remember from my childhood and what stands out to me. Doing this project so far has made me realise that unless I really think about a memory, it might as well not be there. What I started off with was a figure that once drawn out looks very similar to that of a clown. The prints that I have done look disturbing, they remind me of why I do not like clowns, so this is a disturbing image to work with. I started out making block prints of the clown.

 

Thinking about this image more and trying to place features to the face, it began to come together. Once seeing some final prints I feel like something is still missing and I can’t figure out what it is. Even seeing some of the prints finished I still cannot place why this is a memory, I have asked my brother and even though he agrees it is ‘creepy’ he cannot remember it either. I am pleased with how these prints turned out but they lack realism and detail, even using set colours and the clown having a face, something is still missing…

Emily Joy- Sit Place...

Emily Joy is an award winning artist that creates sculptural and installation pieces that are influenced by childhood memories. Joy presents nostalgic spaces through symbolic objects that signify a certain subjective interaction with the memory of a significant person or place. In some cases Joy overlays her installation pieces with a projection which builds on a visual palimpsest and restructures the narrative of each object.

Some of her work focuses on loss, memory and the trace of absence. Her contemporary work explores Derrida’s theory of trace, removal and the uncertainty of visual signifiers as symbols of memory. 

Alzheimer's- Great-granddad George...

Discussing my project with my Nana and Granddad proved to be useful. After beginning my project with temporary and deciding to look into more detail on the subjects of memories, diseases that affect the memory and childhood, I decided to discuss this with my grand-parents who then inform me that my Great-granddad George died of one of the diseases I had previously researched- Alzheimer’s. I was only 2 at the time of his death which is why I don’t remember much about him or the illness he suffered from, so I began to ask them about how he changed and they began to tell me stories about how he was with the disease.

                One of the main things they told me that stood out was that he didn’t recognise himself when looking in the mirror and because he didn’t recognise himself when he looked out through a window he used to phone the police thinking someone was trying to break-in. To not remember loved ones faces must be hard enough but to not recognise you must have been frightening and lonely, feelings that we could not comprehend.

                They reckon that my Great-granddad had Alzheimer’s for 4 years; it became apparent when his partner Elsie died. Granddad George’s symptoms worsened after 2 years, his daughters and sons all taken care of him until it became too much to handle. He was placed in a care home for 12 months before he passed away.

                His symptoms whilst they taken care of him were agitation, loneliness, difference in personality, changed his appearance to not caring, confusion and eventually tube fed because he couldn’t remember how to swallow- it is like a baby trapped in a man’s body. It must have been awful to watch the person you love die away with nothing to do but watch. My nana said it was like caring for someone she had never met before because she knew he had already died.

                The brain shuts down gradually taking the person piece by piece. They said he ‘looked straight through them’ at times. He could remember years ago but just forgot recent stuff; he had no concept of time, the days and nights merged together. Some people call it the ‘Living Death Disease’. They also said he repeated a lot of things over and over again, confused and senseless.

                My Nana told me a story of how my older brother and sister asked my Great-granddad to draw with them, he didn’t understand first and after they explained and repeated what they was asking, they told him to not colour outside the lines, my Nana said he sat there for hours colouring in this picture without going out the lines, it was like him learning a new skill and revisiting childhood, this disease takes a person back to being the vulnerable baby they once started out as.

Memory Lapse...

This experiment above was created using a photocopy of a painting that I had done for the summer project with a splat of gesso paint over the top. I literally placed the paint in my hand and threw it at the painting creating the random drips. When the paint dried it began to crack fitting in with the idea of memories seeping through the cracks, a representation of a memory reappearing, but slowly. 

Diseases that affect the memory...

Repressed Memory

Repressed Memory which is also known as ‘recovered memory’ is a hypothetical concept to describe a memory that is unable to retrieve/recall certain memories; these memories have been blocked because of a painful or traumatic event. Repressed memory is a term used to describe memories that have been dissociated from awareness.
Repressed memories can be recovered years even decades after the traumatic event, a trigger as small as a feeling or smell can restore the memory.
Traumatic memories are coded differently to ordinary event memories; they have alterations in the focusing attention span. Memories are seen as accurate but not in every case, some memories can be unreliable.
Memories of events are a mixture of factual traces and sensory information that are then overlaid with emotions, interpretations and imagination.
How reliable is the memory?

Amnesia
Amnesia is a partial or complete loss of memory that goes beyond forgetting. Often Amnesia temporarily only involves a certain part of a person’s experience. Amnesia can be brought on by an injury to the brain such as a bang to the head; it can also be brought on by a psychological trauma. A recovered memory is also known as dissociative amnesia which is a loss of significant personal information.

Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s and it worsens as the disease progresses, it eventually leads to death. Most often Alzheimer’s is diagnosed in people over the age of 65, it is predicted that by 2050 Alzheimer’s will affect 1 in 85 people globally. There are common symptoms to predict Alzheimer’s, one being difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease progresses and worsens symptoms include: confusion, mood swings, aggression and long-term memory loss.
On average the life expectancy following the diagnosis of the disease is approximately 7 years. There are no available treatments that stop or reverse its progression.
The person suffering from the disease relies heavily on others for a lot of assistance until the day they pass away.

Memory Lapse: Alcohol Intake...

Alcohol intoxication is where alcohol builds up in the blood stream faster than the liver can metabolize it. Alcohol is one of the world’s worst spread recreational drugs. Alcohol intoxication has many dangerous side effects: slurred speech, impaired balance, dehydration, vomiting, reduced inhibitions, erratic behaviour and MEMORY LAPSE.

Alcohol is metabolized by a normal liver at the rate of one ounce every 90 minutes (one 2 ounce shot of spirits, a normal beer or a regular size glass of wine).

The dangerous side effects of alcohol intake were mentioned above but there are many more long term effects that are a lot more serious such as: heart attacks, strokes, brain lesions, DEMENTIA, coma and even death.

Excessive alcohol intake can be associated with impaired prospective memory loss which can lead to failure in intended tasks for example: forgetting to switch the telly off or lock the door. The higher the volume of alcohol intake and the longer consumed the more sever the impairment will be. The brain organ is one of the most sensitive to the effects of chronic alcohol consumption.      

Mind Mapping...

 A general mind map exploring everything that I could think of in relation to the word 'Temporary'.

A more thought out mind map focusing on what I will research further, aspects that interest me more than the others.

Susie Macmurray-Widow: The Starting Point

 A gown made from Napa leather and approximately 10,000 dressmaker pins is absolutely stunning. This garment couldn’t be worn at all, it holds all elements off loss and incredible pain that is unbearable, like wearing this dress would be. On first glance the gown looks made from soft fur further from the actual truth of material used, the pins are sharp and edgy which could do some real damage. It is said that the pins represent a women’s identity: “Look if you will, but touch at your own peril”. A dress made out of sharp pins is an insight to how Susie Macmurray sees things, she is inventive and her choice in materials is thoughtful and curious.

This sample below was created taking influence from Susie Macmurray's work above. I used her choice of materials and applied them in a different way, using them as a way of drawing. Using the dressmaking pins and thread was a material I have not used before so it was challenging as well as awkward but the outcome was pleasing. These samples were about creating a structure that is reliant on each other to stay the same, if I removed one pin the whole structure would fall and fail. This concept gave me the idea on how this project will start. My project will start with the word 'Temporary'.