When we remember a specific time in a specific place what do we feel? Can we smell the air, can we taste food, can we see colour and hear music? My immediate answer to this is no, not really. But it’s a lot more complex than the straight answer I would like to give you. A part of our brain records various sensory inputs, allowing us to retain information about what we once experienced. We feel nostalgia, we get an overall sense of what we once felt, but our bodies are not actively feeling these things as new.

I am most interested in visual and audio memory recall. I have been looking at this in my art practice and developing a series of techniques to represent the mind’s layering process and visual recall. Recalling a memory is not like watching a film of what happened. It’s often distorted, layered and clouded. It’s a feeling, not a narrative. I wish to mirror this idea of clouded memory and essentially externalize the internal mind’s eye.

Our memory system is very dynamic and flexible and I think everyone experiences things differently. My art presents my own personal take on memories, and loss in memory, by creating immersive spaces, paintings and sonic meditations. Through the juxtaposition of unpredictable medium with intentional form/figure I explore the theme of clouded memories, people and experiences. I use unpredictable techniques, mainly acrylic pours, and compliment this with a strategic, intentionally linear style – this creates a visual / psychological pulse and points towards a deeper meaning. I introduce layering in both my painting practice and sound art to project the idea that our memories are constantly being layered heavily, causing a loss in detail.