The background to my practice relates to work previously undertaken in my Grandfathers suffering of the disease Alzheimer’s. Interested in the subject of memory and the discrepancies that are produced over the course of age,
I was aware of the extreme contrasts that were being created; absence and presence of body and mind, loss and gain of independence, placement in a type of limbo where neither past nor present belong
‘Why should this absolutely god-given faculty retain so much better the events of yesterday than those of last year, and, best of all, those of an hour ago? Why, again, in old age should its grasp of childhood’s events seem firmest?’[1]
I feel that you are your memories; the past supporting your present and can help predict the future, decisions based on experience. In the Theatetus (191cd) Plato raises the idea that memory might be analogous to a wax tablet into which our perceptions and thoughts stamp images of themselves, as a signet ring stamps impressions in wax. Experiences sculpting ones identity, but how can true identity be formed if there inconsistency of the mind?
We persistently gather ornamental souvenirs displaying adventure, family photography providing evidence of our nurture, in effect a constant reminder of past, an archive. Inanimate forms hold visual memories for the beholder, but when the function of subject (memory) is lost the object unfortunately lives in vain, the background already removed by the unexplained unforgiving forgotten.
‘The souvenir is destined to be forgotten; the tragedy of all autobiography and the simultaneous erasure of the autograph’ [2]
My investigation will result in work based upon these theories. My aim is to create pieces that provoke memories and raise questions in order to elevate our understanding of the human condition.
James Mitchell
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