Six memories of youth

studio works 2014

 

I read about Christian Boltanski’s project Six Memories of Youth where he wrote about his memories but altered them slightly so that others would be able to relate to them.

 

Inspired by this project I decided to write six memories of my youth every day. I did this for two weeks and found the experience to be interesting at first and then frustrating when I struggled to recall the past. I kept to a system whereby I wrote the first six memories that came to me every morning. A memory I had was called into question by my mother who claimed the event I recalled had never happened. I realised, perhaps not for the first time, how fallible memory is and wondered why we rely on it so much.

 

Boltanski had slightly altered his memories so that others could relate to them. I set out to do the opposite...to record and share my memories but in a way that made them far from generic and entirely personal but with a sense of humour. Looking at the memories I had generated I realised that many were negative and by making them humorous I hoped to put a twist on the past.

 

The memories were always going to be in printed form however the act of transferring the memory to the viewer in a fortune cookie came when I thought about turning my memories into prophesies.

 

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terracotta, paper. 2014