CONTOURS OF MEMORY

JOINT PROJECT WITH DAVID BILKEY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO, NZ.

GROUP EXHIBITION “MEMORY AND MIND”

8 – 20 July, 2024. Dunedin Community Gallery, NZ. Nano-Science Festival

Memory drives the creative process. As you draw a line across a surface it becomes an extension of your mind and snippets of memory stored in your hippocampus are made visible. Through a process of sequential drawing, overlaying, repetition, recording and remembering I have tried to unlock my unconscious memory.

These drawings have evolved out of a process of memory and recollection. While doing these drawings I recalled the intricate drawings of the Spanish neuroscientist Ramón y Cajal (1852 – 1934), whose intricate drawings reveal the complex nature of the hippocampus.

In my conversations with David Bilkey, we talked about the sequential process of memory. This led me to consider how this could relate to my working process in drawing. The drawings were done in sets of four to create a complete series of 10 artworks. The drawings process continued back and forth until a number of layers had been built up. The last drawing in each series was transferred to a new paper to start the new series. The final drawings bear only a small resemblance to the first sketches. They become a memory of a new reality.