Syllabus Title: Art & Design\Personal Study

Syllabus Code: 9704

Component Number: 4.4

Found Objects as Relics of Memory

By Monika Simic
Candidate Number:
Center Number: EA018
INTRODUCTION

According to Georges Bataille, art is “Cradle of Humanity”, therefore we can

consider art as medium that has foretold, formed and documented our past as well
as future. Using varied forms of artistic expression different people, social groups
or even cultures have expressed opinions and deeper feelings as much as of
present as of past. Art is unique form that provides aesthetic and metaphorical
evidence of our global and personal existence. This concrete proof marks our
personal or collective memories and our positive or negative accomplishments.
Those touchstones give us a platform for numerous different interpretations.

As UNESCO claims : “The concept of heritage listing a building or a mountain is

a well defined and familiar one, but preserving and maintaining a link with the
past and building a narrative as a culture, involves far more tenuous elements.”
The main purpose of, “Imagine a world without memories”, programme is to
preserve, commemorate our personal memories in an engaging and analytical
ways. I believe that these kinds of projects are beneficial in order to accentuate the
importance of maintaining records and momentous associated with events
important to individuals. Raising public awareness about preserving personal and
private memories is essential more than ever, due to our post modern way of
existence and loss of self within global community.

The main purpose of this essay is to examine the use and point out the importance
of personal recollections and memorabilia within contemporary art as form of
expression. Using relics of our past as artistic medium we can represent private
and public memories, and critically question varied set of social and cultural
norms and behaviors.
Besides exploring art as autobiography in regards to representing and
remembering the past I will referee to varied contemporary artist such as Christian
Boltanski and Jo Spence. In addition, I will analytically reflect on my artistic
practice and creatively respond to the concept of personal memory.
Memory as the essence of any form of artistic expression offers a multitude of
narratives about personal and collective life and existence. Contemporary artist are
increasingly occupied by the theme of private and collective remembrance and the
role of memory as historic evidence that defines specific period, culture, society
and identity at the same time. Artists such as Christian Boltanski, and Jo Spence
are using evidence of personal history as object-based or found object art form in
order to challenge and re-examine our perception, understanding and knowledge
of the past.

According to Wikipedia, found object describes, “…art created from undisguised,

objects or products that are not normally considered art …because they already
have a non-art function. Found objects derive their identity as art form the
designation placed upon them by the artist and from the social history that comes
with the object.” Relocation of such objects from their existence modifies the
object because, “…it changes our perception of its utility, its lifespan, or its
status.”

French and internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Christian Boltanski is

considered to be the father of found object art medium in regards to use of relics of
personal and collective memory. As the artist himself points out, “No, I never take
photographs myself. I don’t feel like a photographer, more like a recycler.”

Trough medium of photography and installation he examines the concept of

identity, heritage as well as the positive and negative sides of human existence.
Giving religious and relic status to the discarded objects such as photographs he is
using them as visual evidence of memory. According to Boltanski, “The photo
replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can’t visualize them
anymore, you only remember them through their pictures.” Incorporating such
objects within his art he is referring to the symbolic association of photographs
with time and our emotional attachment and sentimental response to the same
objects that we all have in our photo albums or memory boxes. As Boltanski
states, “Photography is used to give evidence, and the evidence is always
deceiving.”

By manipulating or simply archiving his own or found photographs using

documentary style, Boltanski very successfully takes advantage of metaphoric
social association with such medium as evidence or document of our past.

In his Monuments (1984) (see picture 1), installation artwork he uses his own
school class photograph which is deselected into individual portraits that are
exhibited under light bulbs, giving shrine like quality to the art piece. In a similar
series of photographic interventions he used old class photograph of a Jewish
school where he deselected again each individual image of students that were
enlarged so that they became pixilated, blurred and unrecognizable. In his widely
recognisible installation artwork, besides photographs he often uses personal
possessions in order to establish parallel between anonymous owners and their
history. In a collaborative artwork titled Favorite Objects (1998) (see picture 2),
Boltanski has requested from a group of students to bring their most treasured
possession. By recording, cataloging and photographing each possession, he has
created on first instance visual archive of mundane objects that do not have any
significant importance to the other people. The follow up segment of this piece
was to analytically and critically engage students with their chosen object and to
explore the significance of their possessions.

British mix media artist Jo Spence (1934-1992), is considered as key figure in

challenging the concept of photography and representation in early 70’s. Using
wide range of photographic styles, from amateur, autobiographical, documentary
to photo therapy, she is stressing the importance of photography as medium trough
which concepts of memory, identity, class, power, gender, health and body can be
critically explored. Using family snaps and albums as found objects, she examines
the representation and role of family memories in varied forms of artistic
expressions. Trough this artwork, Jo Spence was examining the different meanings
of personal photography and the transformation of the family album into public
narratives of society. According to Jo Spence memory is, “…a narrow, twisting
and discontinuous route back through the broad plains of the past, leading to a
self that by definition we can never remember but only construct through the
limited and partial evidence available to us: half hints of memory, photographs,
memorabilia, and other people’s remembrances.”

Using different image intervention methods such as re-imaging, re-staging and

role-play, she demonstrates and indicates the relevance of phototherapy in
remembrance, recollection and interrogation of personal history, memory and
family relationships. By recreating and providing chronological evidence of her
own existence and memories, she questions authenticity and accuracy of personal
photographs as documents of past events and experiences. In her most celebrated
artwork titled Beyond the Family Album (see picture 3), Jo Spence has displayed
selection of her own family snaps that are accompanied with writings that
questioned the memories that these images suggested. Spence described Beyond
the Family Album as a “…work-in-progress aiming 'to better understand how,
through visual forms of representation, our subjective views of selves, and others,
are structured and held across the institutions of media, and through hierarchical
social relationships.” She was a pioneer in identifying and examining amateur
and personal photography as the intricate form that combines different social,
cultural, ideological codes with family, class, gender and social life. With this
serious of artwork, she emphasized the need for what she calls a ‘counter-
photography’ of the family. This realistic representation of domestic life and
memories needs challenge and manipulate the established forms and conventions
that are associated with family photography. She points out and critically analises
domestic photography as set of desired and predetermine narratives that are not
true or valid documents of personal or family existence.

The above mentioned artists as well as the concepts that they explored in their
artwork are beneficial and are incorporated creatively and analytically in my own
artwork. The series of produced artworks that include use of found objects explore
issues surrounding the history of my own family as form of art therapy and at the
same time as artistic form that has numerous other narratives that challenge the
concept of modern family, loss, nostalgia and longing. I would title this mix media
artwork as an attempt to ‘Re-member’ and ‘Re-assembly of Dissasembled’(see
picture 4,5, & 6), of a family member, who holds unresolved issues of attachment
that seems to be unreal. Both presence and absence of my father have been pivotal
in forming my personality and identity. Using traces or treasured relics of his
presence during my childhood my intention was to preserve the moment or
emotion. The cemented found objects of my memory are artistic evidence and
visual metaphor of captured moment that commemorates relationship. These
found objects are tactile proof that if we were at one place at some point in time,
even for just a moment, there is a part which is staying there forever. Dipping in
concrete or transferring image onto a ceramic gravestone plate I am freezing the
moment, emotional sensation as well as time. Layered images assembled into a
single frame, or selected segment of a hug capture the experience and keep me in
‘touch’, with the past that is both painful and healing. Cemented fathers shirt, my
own baby top and old picnic blanket are used to create shrine like frame for the
images as symbolic relics of my own past. Produced framed images recall my dear
memories which can be real or re-edited, because if we refer to Jo Spence,
personal photographs are carefully selected images that are faked and staged and
they do not represent the real memory.
As part of personal study project I have further develop my practical skills
regarding the representation of memory as personal relics or monument. Working
with the photo studio called ‘Click”, in Belgrade, Serbia, that specialises in
manufacturing images for monuments, I have had hands on experience producing
porcelain picture and grave stone portrait engraving. These methods are social
symbols of passing and a great way to preserve a bit of personal history and
memory. This technique of porcelain image transfer I have used in making the
commemorative piece of the fathers hug that I treasure and miss.

The inspiration for this work is natural development of the concept of memory that
I have explored in my Art & Design coursework, which explored the importance
of cemetery and relics in human existence. Video installation combines footage of
events from my childhood and me wondering aimlessly around grave yard. While
developing this idea and by observing and reading the epitaphs I have realized
how hard is the human drive to make a monument, a memorial which would
actually commemorate loss and celebrate life, achievements, etc. Like in the
famous song by Peter Gabriel, “…in this work I was digging in the dirt, finding
the places I have got hurt and trying to make beauty live forever and to find the
beauty in left-overs.” It was highly important to quote this song as my artwork is
not only a project; it is a reflection of the deepest and honest feeling.
CONCLUSION

In this essay as well as in my artwork I have demonstrated and outlined my

attitude and opinion about artistic use of personal memory, family photographs
and found objects. In conclusion I will again refer to the findings and concepts of
Boltanski and Jo Spence in regards to the discussed subject matter of memory.
Throughout this project I have myself implied and as Boltanski himself stresses
that: “In most of my photographic pieces I have manipulated the quality of the
evidence that people assign to photography, in order to subvert it, or to show that
photography lies—that what it conveys is not reality but a set of cultural codes.”
The principal question in my personal study project same as for the Jo Spence in
her ‘The Family Album’, project, “…concerned what was being screened out from
family photography, in contrast to the carefully orchestrated images of union,
celebration and occasion.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and

Remembrance by Joan Gibbons

Memory (Documents of Contemporary Art) by Ian Farr

Marc Quinn: Memory Box by Germano Celant and Roberto Calcagno

The Possible Life of Christian Boltanski by Luc Sante

Jo Spence Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity,

Antagonism by Spence

Family Snaps: The Meanings of Domestic Photography by Jo Spence and

Patricia Holland

WEBSITE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundobject

www.christian-boltanski.com

www.jospence.org