These are some installation investigations continued on from our ESW workshop – spaces come across further along the cycle path from ESW, which seem to be good spots for public artwork in that they are both public and out of sight. I made an intervention into the wooded site with a length of yellow metal measuring tape, imagining it wrapped around branches like an alien, exotic creature. Also interesting to stretch it from one object/branch to another, incorporating its primary purpose to measure space.

With memory as the given concept I was drawn to the idea of cultural or collective memory. In terms of most significant/prominent cultural memory my immediate go to was the 9/11 attacks – incidentally my first such memory. Problematically I then began envisioning a resolved piece being centred on this single memory. To get around this, and to broaden the concept beyond my personal memory I asked classmates, friends and family which events featured most prominently in their memories:

Michael Jackson death, Jimmy Saville revelations, 2014 Referendum, Barack Obama election, Trump election, Grenfell, Olympic Games (2008, 2012), Nelson Mandela death, UK riots, Manchester Arena, 7/7, 9/11

Like mine they were largely negative: deaths, acts of terror, corruption, abuse – the only exceptions being sporting events and Obama’s election. The most commonly cited amongst those asked was 9/11 – which says something about the spectacle, severity and political significance of that event, but also of the age group I had asked (24+). Had I asked more people even just two years younger I would likely not have received 9/11 as an answer.

In order to start making 3D objects in response to memory I took an observation walk with the intention of later producing sculptures of what I remembered seeing. Beginning with paper, the majority were based on buildings I had seen and so were angular, linear, structural. Using black pen, charcoal and graphite to recreate the minimal tones the results appeared burnt out, sooty. Without intending to I had made objects suited to communicating the memory of the twin towers.

Other experiments involved tying wooden blocks together in architectural arrangements, and repression communicated through the packing of lengths of rope into small containers. The second of these I think has potential for future projects – is easily repeated and expanded in scale.