WHAT [(IS IT) ABOUT MY] MEMORY
Community-Engaged Installation
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Artist talk at Arc Gallery in San Francisco
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What [(Is It) About My] Memory? What about my memory? What memory?
While my mother was being diagnosed with frontal-temporal dementia and she was losing her own stories, my innate curiosity about memories, how the brain stores them and loses them, escalated. The neurologists and memory specialists fed me with new terminology, theories, suggestions for activities that preserve brain function, images and . . . more questions. How do we influence each other’s memories? How does telling our stories alter our memories? What is shared, collective, societal memory? I decided to use my personal history as my laboratory, as the creative resource for work about memory. And, then, develop ways to weave in other people’s memories and ways to explore those memory preservation activities with others. The installation of this project includes the soma or neural cell body wall sculptures that are symbolic of particular groupings of memories - family, homes, pets, travel, songs, jokes, words, activities ... Wire dendrites and axons radiate out and hold memory cards upon which are written individual memories – my own, ones I have gathered from family and friends and, with the exhibition, those added by visitors. This evolving project forms a back drop to readings, performances, & workshops looking at the sharing of memories from community development, collaborative leadership development, creative, therapeutic and scientific perspectives. |