My collage pieces made earlier in the year had were digging deep from past memories of the beach. The large stones as children we, my brother and I would scramble over. The rough surfaces, chiseled by the sea into linear striations ignited a desire to create an installation piece from the many printed photos of family, place, time and culture I had brought with me. I started with the photo I'd taken on the beach in week one of a series of rocks. This time scrambled over by my great niece and nephews. Grazed knees, sandy swimming togs and buckets of water splashed over the surface to pick out the slate grey and blues of the sea and sky. Made from granite, squashed over with layers of slate. How many centuries of people had sat on and climbed on its surface? What histories could be told from these rocks!
I had brought with me a large series of images I'd collected over time consisting of family photographs (contemporary, biographical, historical, geographic) and cultural designs I'd collected after I had my DNA tested. I had researched all my cultural identity from Swiss (who knows where that came from! to Azeribijani - even more of a mystery!!
Looking at the rocks, shells and detritus of bits of rope, buoys etc sparked an idea. I wanted to create an installation piece that consisted of collected and assembled pieces representing my family history but also inspired by the seascape around me. I was also feeling the pressure to produce "something". Coupled with meeting family members who I hadn't either met for many years or hadn't met at all, I felt anxious to be honest. I started thinking about the construction and my first thoughts turned to tearing rather than cutting pieces. As I was feeling anxious I began to tear the printed images and it felt right that they formed pieces which ended up looking like shells - linking the current environment to my work. It just felt right. I then used the blue I'd been obsessing about from walks around the beach and town and stitched them together to form long strings. More to follow
