Memory is what is left in our minds by the experiences we have and I got to think about it quite a lot three years ago after I went to Vienna for the second time. I thought about what I remember from the first and second visit and how those memories mix in my mind. What I realized is that, at least for me, memories degrade very fast – I remain only with photographic memories, scarce scenes. I pretty much know a lot of things that have happened, but I can’t see them in my mind clearly or at all – I mostly feel like I’m imagining that scene from what I know happened. So, I developed some works back then that have the same idea as what I did for this course this week. Memories fade in time and I like to portrait that by using fire. I like to use fire, not only because it destroys, but it also changes. This happens to memories – some are forgotten and some change.
On the insert, which is some sort of greeting card, it’s written “La multi ani!” (Happy birthday!). I chose to write this because on birthdays we celebrate the passing of time and with time passing we have more memories, so this work, for me, is a celebration of memories.
What I did for the theme of this week was make an envelope and an insert out of some of the letters / postcards I got when I was a child and I was corresponding with other children. We were part of the fan club of an anime we grew up watching – I’m going to let you guess which one ;). I used fire and washes of paint to show degradation of the memories. Everything is hectic and messy, because I don’t remember much from that time without some amount of effort, especially about those I was corresponding with, so everything seems to be a mix of everything else in my mind. As I ponder on some particular letter or item I can state something about it. What you can tell from this is also my favorite character in the anime – it’s the only thing I used done by me – all the letters and drawings are done by kids that were writing to me. It’s fun to look back sometimes. It’s like trying to do a puzzle.
insert
The joy of creating 