artist statement
My research interests are interdisciplinary, bringing together knowledge gained from degrees in anthropology, African studies, social work and photography. My work primarily deals with photographic explorations of journeys (through historical time) and archives of memory. This interest in archives stems from a childhood fascination with foraging for and collecting artefacts. As a result, I own a vast collection of fossils and coins as well as endless photographs rescued from skips and flea markets. I continue this practice by foraging through layers of physical and cultural geography, history and memory, and by piecing together fragments that establish links between our collective past and present. In particular, I investigate the role of the artist as an archivist of personal and collective memories, memories that are about to be lost or have been silenced.
History can be hard to grasp; it feels anonymous and alien until we begin to examine individual stories. Therefore my projects often begin with a story: a 'minor' historical event or an ordinary person's experience. From this, I draw connections with a larger historical context and show the ripple effects that the minor event caused: some ripples surviving until the present day. Through research, I collect triggers such as photographic documents, stories, objects, sound and video recordings. Through travel, I try to experience a past event embedded in the fabric of a location, such as a building or a landscape: its residual archaeology. Often, a project will be reworked through projection, digital manipulation, layering and bricolage . These processes emphasize that my own access to the material is usually not immediate but mediated and that each narrative can contain multiple meanings when revisited over time.
The images from the photographic series Traces (2001) allude to spaces of reflection within ourselves. They are “containers of memory”. Traces is based on two family photographs that I found in a suitcase belonging to my great uncle Hugo who was Jewish. While Hugo managed to escape to the UK from Austria most of his family perished in the Holocaust.
The short film, Leaving Atlantis (2003), funded by South East Arts, is a collaboration with artist Nerea Martinez de Lecea and reflects the experience of cultural displacement.
Two Sisters (2003), for which I received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, explores the different WW2 experiences of two sisters: my maternal grandmother Viktoria and her sister Martha. Viktoria lived and worked in Berlin from 1938 to 1945. Martha by polar contrast contributed to the British war effort from the UK. In 2002, I undertook a journey of discovery in Berlin and the UK to relive their stories. The work was developed for two major solo exhibitions: one at the Manx Museum (2004, Douglas) and the other at the Mediatheque Francois Mitterand (2004, Poitiers). In each case, the gallery space was transformed into a circular journey. Visitors were invited to walk chronologically backwards or forwards through the exhibition. A sound room was built in the centre of the gallery from where sound 'spilt over' into the entire space. This layout, the immediacy of sound, the stillness of the photographs and objects in display cases intended to engage visitors through an evocation of feelings and senses.
The theme explored in Retracing Heinrich Barth (2006), (supported by South East Arts and the University of Brighton) connects to my first degree in Anthropology and African Studies. An online version (developed with Sam Butler and Mia Thornton) is at www.retracingheinrichbarth.co.uk. The project retraces an 1849-1856 British expedition to West Africa, lead by the German explorer Heinrich Barth. It focuses on African anecdotes relating to Barth’s journey, and explores the relevance of storytelling. Barth, an exceptional European explorer was vehemently opposed to the slave trade and meticulously recorded his observations of African history, linguistics, geography and customs in endless notebooks. He is popular in Niger to this day, and features in Niger schoolbooks as someone who was genuinely interested in the people he met along the way. Upon Barth’s return to London in 1856 he brought with him two travel companions, James Henry Dorugu (a freed slave) and Frederick Buxton Abbega. Dorugu recorded his biography and personal travel account; his story includes fascinating insights into life as a slave in pre-colonial Africa; the Barth expedition; and observations on life in London in the 1850s.
One of the aims of Retracing Heinrich Barth, (whilst not ignoring poverty and hardship) is to emphasise the strength, resilience and pride of local populations in the Air region of Northern Niger. Through the participatory community photography project: Stories from Agadez: Life as it is now, insights from an African community are shared.
I am also currently making new work on a little-known pilgrimage (from Liverpool to Canada that took place in 1929 and involved more than 1000 people). My Canadian Pilgrimage (supported by the Ontario Council for the Arts) a photographic series and video work, will be completed in 2008/09.
