Memory That Remains, 2021
‘Memory that Remains’ explores the complexity of traumatic memory. It examines how trauma affects memories and its correlation to photography; the facets of recollection and trying to forget.
The submerged plant roots in water act as a metaphor for the absorption of memories. They serve as a cage surrounding or confining memories while the plant body itself, alludes to memories that, at times, lay hidden, damaged, or obscured through trauma.
The work exposes the different ways traumatic memory can unconsciously be brought to the surface, at times partial and without warning.
In the video for ‘Memory that Remains’, the cyclical movement of the plant roots represents the endless cycle of remembrance, repression and the desire to forget. The video constructs a space of immersion. Darkness symbolises the immeasurable depth of traumatic memory, the sound invites an embodied encounter for the viewer to consider the nature of trauma as an inescapable continuum.
The images serve as metaphor for the processes of traumatic memory.
Like trauma, the images can move, shift and be re-ordered, contingent on context, circumstance, and moment in time. The book invites interaction through which the viewer may consider the relationship between the trauma of remembering and the desire to forget.
'Memory That Remains' was part of an online exhibition where Nottingham Trent University MA Photography was included in the Source Graduate Photography Online MA/MFA selections 2021.
'Memory That Remains' was also part of an online exhibition as part of the NTU school of Art and Design Masters showcase for 2021.