TIME. SPACE. MEMORY.

Time
So, time. Well time is both inconceivable and yet very reliable. We know that the Earth was created around 4.5 billion years ago but it has only been 200, 000 since humans have started looking the way that we do today. In the time between this saw the formation of the Earth; the hardening of the crust, the development of continents and oceans, dinosaurs, plant and animal life, and the evolution of humankind itself. But what happens if we travel even further back? Before the Earth, even before the Universe? We live in ignorance to conceive that time equates to year, month, day etc, it holds both everything that we know and everything that we will never know.
We map time through history. From primitive ages to ancient, to medieval and relatively recent, we have always recorded culture and society. But how do we know history exists? We have not been there; we have not experienced that way of life. It seems to many of us that history is more of a story than the ‘past.’ Of course we have proof that history exists through archaeology and science, and through found artefacts, but we will never truly understand the past. It is this uncertainty that intrigues me.
Tales of myths and legends from past cultures are held within the void between history and fantasy. One particular example that intrigues me is Homer’s Iliad. The tale which involves the destruction of the ancient city of Troy by the ancient Greeks has never been proven true, there has been a site found that could be the remains of the ancient city, but the evidence is not strong enough to be certain. Troy was not only subject to the will of the Greeks, but also, according to Homer, the will of the Gods. It is this overlapping of reality and myth that draws my attention.
I also find myself very interested in British history and legend. The tales of the legendary King Arthur and his knights seem to also breach the gap between reality and fiction. It is this gap, or uncertainty that I find myself interested in. My own longing for a sense of magic or the supernatural may have much to do with my need for understanding the world as something mysterious. It is the idea that only the Earth itself knows of what once was, what could or could not be.

Place
Place is a very interesting issue as a contemporary artist. We all have places that we feel we have an emotional tie to. Home is a good example. There is no place like home. When we think of home, we also think of all the things that make up that place, the people, buildings, and the ‘feel’ of the place becomes entwined within our perception.
I was brought up in the North East of England, and to me this will always be home. No matter where I go, I am always pulled back to the NE. Whether this is due to it being the location of my family, my friends or whether this is some kind of primal attachment, I will never truly understand.
I’m very interested in the history of the North East. From the Celts to the Romans, from a vast collection of Castle and priory ruins to the invading Norse Vikings, there are many examples of past cultures and invasions scattered across this part of England.
I particularly like the area Northumberland. Across this space there is the (Roman) Hadrian’s wall, towards the sea there are castles such as Bamburgh and Alnwick and on the small island of Lindisfarne we can see the ruins of a priory from the first significant Viking landing in the year 793. I find myself interested in the cultures of these peoples. Myths and legends, again, draw my interest, as well as religious issues.

Memory
I feel that memory is a very personal issue, as an artist I would not create a piece about my own past, my memory of an event or person. I feel this would be too much of an intrusion. Aside from that, I do not wish to create art about myself, I know myself. I’m more interested in what I don’t know.
For me, when I take on a new project it must be a path of discovery, nothing should be set in stone, no clear idea or form in mind. It’s a process of creating, reflecting, reading, adding etc. The most frustrating part of being an artist is that the journey will never end, one must learn to never accept a final conclusion, there is always room for further exploration.
So, being stubborn and private (ha!), how can I review the issue of memory without describing my own memories? Well I’m interested in the process of memory. Why do we remember something’s and not others? Why do memories fade over time? Memory is something very emotive, and it also can become something more physical. It can remind of a scent or the feel of an object. I’m also interested in the memories of others, and aspects of diary making.
Objects can hold memories, such as when you go to a charity shop and find a purse with a note inside, an old shopping list perhaps? The object suddenly comes to life, it holds something quite mysterious, something now forgotten