Out of the Blue
-a return to childhood memories of place
Part of my early years were spent in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia. These images are of places and objects from my childhood that prompt a strong emotional and visceral response in me, better or worse. Some are difficult to look at at, even many years later.
This body of work came from my research into memory, in particular my own personal experiences from childhood. Within the constructs of individual memory there are several categories. One is declarative memory- the categorisation of experiences and factual information, which is prone to erosion through exposure to alternative options or suggestions, more so as time advances. If our visual memories are part of declarative memory then they are also subject to the same limitations. In its faded, weakened condition, memory becomes defenceless to misinformation. Connected to declarative memory is associated memory, a conduit that links us to an image, an event or an experience through associated emotional and/or sensory stimuli and permits the longer term recollection of these declarative memories. The more numerous the associations, the deeper the memory is entrenched. In an overabundant visual 'information' based state do our memories become, over time, merely a part of declarative memory and therefore diluted or redundant? Are we eroding the use of our associated memory? As we move rapidly from one image to the next- is the inherent pictorial climax of an image is lost in our disassociated state and lacking a frame of reference through inundation of ambiguous volumes of images?