My exhibition “Intertwined Memory” opened on the 23 of June in the gallery La Casa Amarilla, Zaragoza Spain.

This exhibition is the continuation of the project called “Tracking Memory” which I did in 2024 together with David Bilkey, Professor in Psychology from Otago University, Dunedin. Our project was part of the Art and Memory Project which was a collaborative interdisciplinary project curated by Pam McKinlay with the support of The Dunedin School of Art, Otago University and Creative NZ. In this project artists and scientists together explored how the idea of memory is understood within different frameworks.

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. The drawings in “Tracking Memory” 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), which reveal the complex nature of the hippocampus.

In my conversations with David Bilkey we talked about the sequential process of memory. As Bilkey says “ Memory serves as the scaffolding upon which our identities and experiences are built. While we often think of memory as being somewhat like a video recording of our experience, that we can play back at some later point in time, the reality is much more complex” Bilkey explains later that in his research he is “… particularly interested in the ‘where’ of episodic memory. That is spatial memory, and the question of how we remember places and our journeys between them. This lead me to consider how this could relate to my working process in drawing. I decided to approach drawing as a sequential form of mark making and layering of shapes and lines. There is a connection to earlier work in the way line takes on the protagonism as the primary expressive element. In the past I have used line to reveal the invisible line of a bee. Now in this work the bee line has transformed and become the invisible energy unleashed by neurons in the form of brain oscillations or ‘theta waves’.

In the exhibition “Intertwined Memory’ I have brought together a series of artworks which all explore the nature of episodic and spatial memory. There are 7 works on canvas as well as works on paper and video. The large scale works of canvas draw out the intertwined workings of neurons within the brain. The lines map out imaginary space and the rhythmic sequence of memory formation is marked as numbers. The lines cut through the pictorial space dividing it up into sections which overlap and transform through time. In all this, my hand is present, marking time much as you do when walking. In the video “Tracking Memory” my hand is constantly moving back and forth marking time like a metronome. In the video I use the squares to represent cells within the brain and express again this idea of sequential memory and ‘phase precession’. Together David Bilkey and I recorded our walks which then become interwoven as a type of shared memory in the video.

I use my hands to draw and I draw my hands. I use the right hand to draw the left hand and visa versa. I draw the contour of my hand or the silhouette and in doing so I am linking the hand to the brain. My hand is an extension of the cognitive activity in my brain. The lines on the palms of my hands are there as a reminder of my past and present. The lines on my hands are a form of cognitive map. These lines extend beyond the edge of my hands in search of new places and new memories. My hands are like islands. In some works the form of the hand has merged into a mysterious form of hidden island.

Información y texto de la sala, Galería La Casa Amarilla:

https://galerialacasamarilla.com/exposiciones/sarah-shackleton-intertwined-memory/