SOPHIA CHRISTIE

This artwork looks at my own memory loss following a period of childhood trauma.

 

I have very few memories from 1998-2000.

 

I wanted to present my absence of memories in a capsule similar to the specimens held in jars at the Natural History Museum.

 

I developed a technique of reducing leaves down to their skeleton and sticking them together with liquid latex.

 

The structure acted as a visual reminder of decay: a memento mori but was also reminiscent of a butterfly cocoon; suggesting renewal and transformation following trauma.

 

When our memory fails, we usually rely on external documents, photographs and letters to ‘jog’ our memory and transport us back to that time. I couldn’t find any such documents and did not want to remember this period from my life.

 

Pierre Nora in Realms of Memory 1984, describes our obsession with archiving documents from our past. My work suggests that perhaps during times of trauma it is best to not hold on to such memories but to let them undergo a natural transformation. 

 

I therefore created objects which are symbolic of the act of remembering, but were in fact blank.

 

These included blank photographic negatives, torn diary entries, bleached photographs of unidentifiable people, evidence of ‘days absent’ on school reports and worry dolls who are unable to disclose their secrets. The mysteries and stories held within these objects are left untold.