On the 17th April 2018, I exhibited the collaborative body of work ‘The Past, We Miss’ with my cousin Maisie in my Grandmother’s residence home. The co-authored prints, zines, sound recordings and video explores reflections and memories of the past and now of our Granny’s former house and surrounding areas – including the forest ‘Golden Wood’.
The multi-media artwork has a combination of archival and new material, to help represent to our audience that although a place from the past is no longer accessible in the way it used to be, does not mean it is entirely lost forever.
Due to our Granny now living in a home, we wanted to bring the work to her and the other residences and their families; as the concept was relatable to their children too. The aim of the work was to represent to our Granny and the audience how these environments from our childhood allowed us to have such creative imaginations, allowing a distinct bond to develop between us. We wanted to thank her and show our appreciation for this, however, we also directed the work to encourage viewers to consider the places they grew up in and to contemplate contacting their elders to thank them for this too.
The pop-up exhibition had a very positive impact on our Granny and other residence members. Many of them came to see the work and from doing so, conversations arose about their childhood memories and places which were special to them for developing relationships – places which felt magical to them as our Granny’s house did to us. We deliberately made enough zines so that some could be given away to viewers of the exhibition (as well as our Granny), so that they could take something away from it. One resident who took a zine said she might write a poem about it, which was fantastic to hear: one creative body of work sparked another!