Photographic memory

 

 

BRIEF:  For this project, we were asked to produce a piece based on memory, with the use of pictures taken with an instant camera.  The photographs should be altered  by different means such as application of bleach, burning etc...

 

 

COMPLETION:

 

I decided to use the memory of a visit I made to 'Les Carrieres de Lumieres' at les Baux de Provence in France last summer.  This an art and sound exhibition which takes place in a lime stone quarry within a large rocky outcrop.

 

Avignon's Tourist Office

 

It is a huge space,made entirely of left over columns of rock which were cut in large blocks, leaving large flat areas within a vast empty.  The space is entirely dark and projectors have been installed in every corners. Huge images of Gaugin and Van Gogh's paintings were projected on the walls and the floor.  Music was played as well as letters from the artists read through speakers.  A second experience followed entitled Metamorphosis projecting films of germinating seeds through to the elements and the universe.  Finally, Jean Cocteau had used the carrieres for the making of his film 'The testament of Orpheus' in 1959.  I was able to sit in situ and watch part of the film.

 





carrieres-lumieres.com

 

The exhibition had a marked effect on me as it was so different and beautiful.  I decided to create a piece in 3D.  I used one small canvas and a cardboard cover, effectively using the inner space on one side to create the inside of the quarry.  For the front cover of the piece, I used sticky pads on top of each other, therefore creating different heights onto which I rested cut out pieces of photographs I had taken with the disposable camera, onto which I had applied bleach.

The whole process of assembly gave a feeling of block construction reminiscent of the entrance of the quarry.  Also, I purposely used more bleach on the slivers of photographs in between the larger pieces.  It looked like the colours of the exhibition trying to escape through the block. I also used the sticky pads to build a frame around the second canvas.  I then applied tissue paper that had been soaked in water to make it pliable. I then dry brushed the joints between the pads to make it look like the blocks in the quarry. 

 

 

 



outline of the entrance on the front cover entrance

                                                                           Inside frame 

 

I proceeded by building small cardboard fittings for the inside of the piece and glued more photographs.  I decided to concentrate on the projected paintings inside the box and the photographs of Cocteau's film on the frame. 





 

 

 

                      

 

 Extracts from my sketchbook

 

 



 

 

 

 



 

Evaluation:

 

 

I was pleased with the outcome as I feel the piece I produced was a good representation of what I was trying to express. I managed to encompass the analogy of the quarry as the skull and the brain inside the skull.  The quarry had been filled with colours and sounds, and the brain being the recipient of the colours and sounds.  I realise that I spend a long time thinking about a project before I start working on it.  I did find out , however, that painting really helps me to clear out my thoughts.  Using the sticky pads was a good idea but although I had made a trial piece before I build up the frame, I found out that I had stuck the pads too close together so that when I applied the paper it could not sink between the pads, therefore, reducing the effect of slabs I wanted to produce.  I will use this kind of 3D work again.