1. What question(s) do you hope your study to answer?
2. What secondary research material is available to you now?
3. What primary research will you be doing?
4. What else do you think you will need and how will you go about acquiring it? e.g visits, exhibitions, seminars, and conferences?
Answers
1. To identify a link between past and present using an object or memory. To ask myself what relevance the object/memory has for me.(Interpret, Analyse, Evaluate) To find relevant theories/theorists/philosophies relating to my subject.
2. Internet sources: Books: Journals/Essays: Artists/Practitioners who have exhibited work on memory/objects/family history
3. Exhibitions of artists work. Published work on objects of memory/family history etc.
Family Tree
Mirror above the Fireplace at Home
The mirror belonged to my Grandmother, Peno. I was named after her. She died in April 1955 so sadly I never knew her. She had apparently refused to let my mam name any of my sisters after her, so when I came along I was given her name. My siblings tell me that she was a gentle and kind woman, a lovely Grandmother. The mirror is an object that links me to her. It lived above the fireplace at home when I was growing up. The home that had belonged to my Grandparents, and where my mother was born. As far as I know, the mirror is over a hundred years old. It is an object that has been a constant in my life, and now that I have inherited it from my father, it sits in its rightful place above our family home fireplace.
It is a reminder of childhood fantasies. I sang into it, watched myself dance in it and recited poetry into it. When I was little, I wanted to be on the stage singing and dancing. The inspiration for this was the music that filled our home every day, and the excitement or the rare outing to the theatre. I was always mesmerised by the cast on the stage and that is still the case today. Whenever I have the opportunity to see a show on stage, I am still in awe of the hard work and dedication that the artists give to their performance on the stage.
The mirror is also a symbol of my ancestral line. Family has become more important to me as I have grown older. I am more interested in who my ancestors were as people. The mirror and the photographs I have of my grandparents and other family members, keep them close to me. I may not have known many of them, but I believe that their thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences are passed down to the new generations. For me it is a form of respect to always remember them and hold them close, because it was they who have given me life.
The Mirror does not hold for me a memory of being with my grandparents, but it has the memory of myself growing in the same home that my grandparents had lived before me. It holds the memory of my grandparents having looked into the mirror that I have also looked into. My mind's eye will sometimes see, not only my reflection, but the reflection of all my family. The mirror holds inside itself a whole host of memories that it can share with me.
Looking inside the mirror I don't only see myself as I am now, but I see myself as I was then, a child in the 1960's and teenager in the 1970's. It may seem a little strange to say this, but there are pictures inside the mirror that I see with my mind's eye. They are real to me. Memories are not only thoughts, but they are pictures too. I can see everything reflected in the mirror, not only the people I love, but the room as I remember it. My father sitting reading the paper after a long day at work, my mam sat in her chair nearest the fire smoking a cigarette. Then I find that all manner of memories come flooding back, one after the other as if I'm watching a film that's moving very quickly.
One object can trigger many memories relating to that object,t and then several branches of memory come together all at once. It can be quite dizzying and I find myself bringing my mind back to one particular memory and enjoying the inner smile it brings with it. Good .memories are joyful.
I think the small lady at the back in the doorway is my Great Grandmother but I'm not sure. My Grandparents are standing together second and third from the right. The others in the picture are my Uncles and their friends. I'm not certain when this photograph was taken but I'm guessing in the 1930's
This photograph was taken in 1920/21 when my mother was a baby. She is sat in her pushchair surrounded by her family.
No comments:
Post a Comment