SOPHIA CHRISTIE
ADDITIONAL INFLUENCES
Brain Day at Kingston Grammar School
Dr Guy Sutton
Wellcome Collection
Electricity: The Spark of Life
Memory Metaphors
The following books, artists and exhibitions have strongly influenced my work and deserve deeper analysis.
CRITICAL ANALYSES
Louise Bourgeois -
Tate Modern Artist Rooms
I visited the Artist Rooms exhibition in the new Tate Modern Switch House. Having viewed Bourgeois' work many times online and in books, nothing compared to seeing it in real life. Many people have told me that this exhibition does not do her work justice, however as I did not see her retrospective I cannot compare it to anything else.
Psychological Impact:
What struck me most, which I had never felt from looking at Bourgeois’ work in a book, was how well she was able to communicate her feelings, thoughts and mood. The use of materials creates a dark and nostalgic narrative and symbolises her inner thoughts, fears and childhood memories.
Use of Materials:
I felt that Bourgeois’ work was effective at communicating her exact feelings and thoughts due to her use of materials. She did not limit herself to working in one medium, but chose the most appropriate method to communicate her ideas.
The therapeutic and restorative qualities of making and repairing were most striking and I could immediately relate to her use of textiles and stitching as a form of therapy.
It became clear that like myself, Bourgeois was interested in recovery, repair and renewal - in part due to her parents’ work as re-upholsterers. This showed me the power of materials and how they can be loaded with meaning if used in the correct way.
Suspension:
Bourgeois’ work is often exhibited hanging from the ceiling or from a steel mobile-like structure. This gives her work a psychological weight, a sense of instability and allows the artwork to be examined from multiple viewpoints. Suspending artwork is a great way to make the viewer subconsciously feel on edge, uncertain and inquisitive. It elevates the work and gives it heightened meaning. The work rotates and is affected by the presence of the viewer meaning that it is never certain, secure or static.
I have used this method of presentation in Turning Point, Metamorphosis and Memento.
Behind the Scenes at the Natural History Museum Spirits Collection
and The Hunterian Museum
Following the Crypt exhibition, I had narrowed down two particular areas of interest as: fragments (‘a part broken off or detached; unfinished or incomplete; an odd piece, bit or scrap’) and specimen (‘a sample used as an example of its species or type for scientific study or display’). I wanted to see how far this interest extended to scientific specimen.
Archiving:
I found both the Spirits Tour and Hunterian fascinating. I enjoyed the obsessive nature of the collections, the methods of preserving objects, and the documentation which accompanied the jars and specimen. Documenting and trapping memories for longevity obviously struck me as important and I have used this idea in my work Metamorphosis.
Like ships in a bottle:
There is a sense of absolute wonderment when you enter either of these collections. It is hard to believe the extent of the collections and exactly how some of the objects ended up being preserved in this way. It will always be bizarre to see a foot, face, foetus or giant squid displaced from its natural environment and put on display in a jar. The strange way our heads tilted to examine these objects in their new environment intrigued me.
Too gruesome:
My overriding feeling after visiting these collections was that the contents of the jars were compelling. The way they were presented was strangely beautiful and the stories associated with the objects were unforgettable. Despite this, the actual objects, the smell and the settings were just too gruesome for me. I had found my limit and further differentiated the edges of my practice.
Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons
Louise Bourgeois
Tate Modern Artist Rooms
Natural History Museum Behind Scenes Tour
Do Ho Suh
Victoria Miro Gallery
Memory
Edited by Ian Farr
Proust Was a Neuroscientist
Jonah Lehrer
Do Ho Suh : Passage/s -
Victoria Miro Gallery
I managed to see Do Ho Suh’s exhibition Passage/s on its final day at the Victoria Miro Gallery. It has become incredibly influential in the development of my work due to the artist’s use of fine and translucent fabrics, natural light and delicate embroidered details.
Natural Light:
Do Ho Suh’s three dimensional fabric passages, known as 'Hubs' are installed in bright white rooms with plenty of natural light, while smaller artworks are displayed in light boxes. At times when I have struggled to display my own work due to its transparency and fragility, I have thought back to this exhibition for inspiration. Such delicate details require a light, bright setting. It gave the artwork an almost weightless, ethereal quality which viewers were invited to enter and rather than feeling enclosed, one felt transported.
Use of Fabric:
Whilst Louise Bourgeois’ artworks are often suspended from the ceiling suggesting they have a deeper psychological meaning, Do Ho Suh’s work transports viewers to the actual corridors from his life. The works are grounded suggesting they are based on reality however, the translucency of the fabric gives them a sense of transience and ‘other worldliness’. The detailed embroidery and quality of construction is astounding. But the feature which I enjoyed the most, was that the detailed embroidery transformed everyday spaces into specimen, designed to be examined in great detail by the viewer. These are spaces and objects which one would never normally scrutinise, but under these conditions, they became like the specimen in jars at the Natural History Museum.
Experimentation:
In addition to Do Ho Suh’s life-size 'Hubs' which were definitely the highlight of the exhibition, on display were smaller white fabric light bulbs, switches and doorbells, which showed a clear similarity to my own memory pods. These were displayed in light boxes to enhance their detail and allow them to be displayed in a relatively dark setting. But his experimentation did not end there and he showed that the same light bulbs could be displayed on paper and print. Thus showing the versatility of his technique, that it works in both two and three dimensions.
Memory:
Memory is undoubtedly present in Passage/s due to Do Ho Suh's almost obsessive rendering of places from his past. The exhibition becomes a museum or archive of accurately measured spaces and objects captured in minute detail.
The methods of presentation have a profound effect on their interpretation. His smaller framed artworks become artefacts, preserved and on display as if in a museum. They do not intend to deceive the viewer into thinking that they are the real object as imperfections and loose threads are visible to break the illusion.
In contrast, the life-size 'Hubs' are immaculate replicas of real locations and once entered, the viewer is transported through a more immersive language of nostalgia.
Memory -
Ian Farr
Memory is an anthology which brings together the major themes and ideas about memory in Contemporary Art. Each short article, interview or essay provides an interesting and distinct interpretation of memory in art, culture and life in general. The book embodies precisely why memory is a limitless subject which artists and writers return to again and again.
Siegfried Kracaur
In Memory Images 1927, Kracaur discusses the ‘filtering’ of memory images. In contrast to the organising and selecting of photographic images, memories are retained because the are personally significant. I particularly enjoyed this image of the brain ‘sieving’ through memories and deciding which were insignificant and therefore forgettable. The idea of sieving and filtering gives the brain a material, almost mechanical quality. It also confirms Freud’s views (1901) that we forget ‘unimportant things’.
Pierre Nora
In Realms of Memory 1984, Nora beautifully describes a world which has become obsessed with collecting documents as if there is a ‘religion of preservation and archivisation’. Museums, galleries, archives and individuals amass external reminders of their own memory unsure what should be remembered and afraid to destroy anything. He believes that this is due to a
‘fear that everything is on the verge of disappearing, coupled with the precise significance of the present and the uncertainty of the future.’
His theory shows how effective the brain is as an organ which subconsciously decides what to keep and what to delete, whereas people feel the need to keep everything just incase it might be useful in the future.
Michael Newman
In Analogue, Chance and Memory 2011, Newman discusses the unique qualities of analogue methods of recording and documenting. As an analogue maker, I found this particularly fascinating as it explained why digital methods were less successful at evoking memories.
'The analogue recording is an index of what it records… it is produced by contact with that which leaves it’.
The lack of permanence and fragility of analogue recordings add to their value. The material continues to have a nostalgic quality even if the contents decay or are erased as a trace or relic will always remain.
‘In this respect, analogue is like our mortal bodies, subject to ageing and desuetude’.
Proust Was a Neuroscientist -
Jonah Lehrer
The premise behind the book is that artists, writers and musicians have made scientific discoveries throughout their lives which are embodied in their work but were perhaps overlooked by the scientific field until recently. Using a substantial amount of hindsight, Lehrer manages to convince the reader that those in the arts were perhaps unwittingly stumbling upon scientific breakthroughs. Rather than being overlooked by other fields, what it actually proves is that those in the arts were in tune with their own feelings and experiences and were able to communicate these through their chosen specialism.
Forgetting Things -
Sigmund Freud
Everyday scenarios:
I really enjoyed the candid way that Freud examines everyday or mundane examples of forgetting, often from his own life. His own detailed introspection is reminiscent of Proust, however Freud focuses on instances of forgetfulness rather than memory. Oliver Sack’s in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat writes about some of the most extreme cases in neuroscience, whereas Freud and Proust show that much can be learnt from even everyday examples of memory. Similar to the idea behind ‘Proust was a Neuroscientist’, Freud viewed everyday experiences to be as important and significant as scientific findings.
Forgetting:
Freud states that ‘we find forgetfulness more of a riddle than memory today’ and enjoys subjecting his own instances of forgetting to psychological analysis in order to understand the mysteries of the brain. Freud lists examples of forgetfulness, such as forgetting to buy blotting paper and unravels the interesting reasons why his brain resists this simple intention, often exposing the inner workings of his subconscious.
Aversion:
Freud suggests that ‘in all cases the motive for forgetting something proved to be based on an aversion’, indicating that the brain subconsciously intervenes to prevent the intention from being carried out. Like Kracaur, Freud believed that we often forget things which we perceive to be unimportant or insignificant.
Forgetting Things
Sigmund Freud
Art and Science:
I fully support the idea that the Arts and Sciences should not be viewed as completely distinct specialisms. There is much that can be learnt from either field and this approach is now being promoted in schools under the heading STEAM (bringing Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths under one heading and showing their equal importance in education).
I have always been fascinated by artists throughout time who have used visual devices which were at the height of scientific development, such as pigments, optics and lenses. It is fascinating to observe how both fields can benefit from each other’s discoveries. Artists have employed scientific techniques for many centuries, and The Arts, through anatomical drawings, dissection and sculpting techniques have helped the advancement of scientific discoveries. Therefore, it is satisfying to read a book which highlights how the two fields can work symbiotically and counteracts the view of them as distinct specialist fields with no overlap.
Proust:
Chapter 4 outlines Proustian discoveries within his novel ‘A la Recherché du Temps Perdu’ and compares them to modern day neuroscience theories. For example, Proust’s vivid recollection of the taste of tea and madeleines transports him back to his childhood. It has since (2002) been proved that smell and taste are directly linked to the hippocampus, making those recollections particularly emotive.
In contrast to the traditional metaphors of memory, Proust noted that memories were not stored away unchanged as if in a library, but that they were reworked and unstable as proved in 2002 when rats were given a memory suppressing protein at the point of recollection, making the original memory disappear.
Readers can relate to the experiences of Proust in his novel as he inspects the workings of his own mind, but science can now unpick why and how these experiences happen. I do not believe that Proust was a neuroscientist as the title suggests, but he was able to describe his experiences in vivid detail, whilst scientists are able to analyse and research the workings of the brain in a more objective way.
