After a burst of inspiration and activity in the last 48 hours I think I’m nearly there with this one. This post doesn’t represent the final version to be submitted to my tutor, rather it is a version that I’m happy to share with student peers for review and comment before I commit it to print.
It has a working title of ‘oh hang on’.
Self evaluation to follow.
EDIT: second draft here.
About the work
“When one glove is missing, both are lost”
(Roger McGough 2000)
Losing a glove is, in a small way, a peculiarly disorienting experience. You lose something that leaves behind its mirror image to remind you of the loss.
Seeing items that other people have left behind in public reminds me of my own memory lapses over the years (well, the ones I can remember, anyway).
I’d already been collecting photos of lost gloves for a few years when I started investigating aspects of memory as part of my photographic practice. I’m particularly interested in the unreliability of human memory. The two threads became connected in my mind. Everybody loses something every day, though usually just a memory, and it’s usually unimportant. Usually.
Evidence of other people’s lapses of attention or memory reassures me that I’m not alone in my absent-mindedness; at the same time, it triggers an oddly symmetrical train of thought about remembering forgetting.
With these images I want to capture a middle-aged sense of realising that you’ve forgotten something: a fleeting moment of panic followed by the nagging sense that this forgetfulness might be symptomatic of slowly losing your faculties.
The physical presentation format is a book dummy, so this set begins with a cover image. The main images in the series are presented here in horizontal format to emulate a double-page spread.
Click on the first image to see a bigger slideshow version – better for reading the text.
oh hang on
Nice set. Really like the connections your making between memories and gloves; wondering how to unpack the title though. In answer to your question ‘When else do you lose something that leaves behind its mirror image to remind you of the loss?’ I say – socks! Which are even more disconcerting when they’ve vanished after you’ve loaded the washing machine but before you hang out your washing…
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Ha, socks! Of course. Now I need to reword that sentence… Thanks 😁
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Although of course, there a far fewer abandoned single socks to be found on the streets…
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Hi. Loved the selections within the frame. I did wonder about having more comments about internal feelings and desires rather than about day to day memory. The glove was used a lot in symbolism which predates Freud. There is a link here to the belief that the glove has power to control. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrase_on_the_Finding_of_a_Glove
But doing that may disrupt the internal consistency of the work.
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Thanks. I decided there’s already plenty of photography projects about memory in the more ‘serious’ sense and I specifically wanted to address everyday memory as a cognitive system/process rather than memor*ies* as emotional entities, if that makes sense.
I was aware of some glove symbolism and connotations outside of my intended reading, but hadn’t seen that particular artwork – I will investigate!
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I love the way that you are making the gloves work almost like post-its! The lighter/humorous take on the memory issue is also good. It reminds me of this one ad we used to have in South Africa about Cremora coffee creamer powder – husband is in the kitchen (pre days when men were actively involved in the kitchen so circa 80’s) and he is in his PJ’s and yells to his wife “I can’t find the Cremora in the fridge” and she yells back at him “Its not inside. Its on top” and he cantankerously yells back “Its not inside!!! Its on …. top” and looks sheepishly at the top of the fridge. :-) I think you’re onto something here!
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Thanks Lynda. And I totally identify with that ad! :-D
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Have you looked at Tracey Emin’s work. There are a number of ‘lost’ baby things in Folkestone as well as one at the foundling museum in London. A lovely series by the way.
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I have! And I meant to write about it on my blog but haven’t yet, so thanks for the reminder :-)
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