The Memory of Others

About this artwork

For me the Shadowlands are my memories and the memories of others. those don't always align with mine so where does truth lie? In this work I have used old photographs from that box of images we all have, somewhere on a dusty shelf. Many of people no one except myself can now recognise or name and there are those I can’t name although I know they were part of my life or the life of my parents. Other 'memories/shadows are included that have imposed themselves on me, e.g. the French papers from an old Sucre tin bought years ago and some very small images from a vintage camera in my collection. Whose memories are those? are they mine in some way? Do I have the right to use them? Are they the memories of others? The work is mainly acrylic but with elements deliberately made with watercolour pens and markers, there are also some sections where colours have been overlayed with marker pens. These areas/words will fade with time, just as our memories do. The repeated Italian phrase is another memory, used in work when I was a student over 50 years ago. Other notations are taken from the reverse side of the photographs used and include reference numbers, a shopping list and comments from a WW2 censor. Memories are like shadows, not reality, existing in a faraway country and, differently, in the memories of others.