news: Library of Memory - progress report

"I was ere" - these more than any other set of words are what sticks in my mind from my childhood of scrawled or scratched messages around the schools I went to. No name attached, probably for obvious reasons but then I think the ego-centric culture we seem to be living in was perhaps in this dimension, in it's infancy. Instead it seems to me that these 3 words are a wish to understand what and how connects us to a certain place and time followed by a question, do these moments exist beyond the personal reference through whom they were enacted.

To put it simply, how do past moments exist in the present time and can we build a means to connect others to this moment from the past.

The memorials to the victims of WW1 with their often solitary military figures, dying, or in sorrow, metal hat tilted and shielding those lost stares into the inner landscapes of pain and horror. Often it was the heavy folds in their battle dress and labored bandage around the calfs which fascinated me as a child and still does to a degree even now. They seemed to alone express the significance of a moment, they transported me and the presented form beyond the stone or metal in which they were made, transporting all to a shared melancholic space.

first project book page for 'Library of Memory'

working often through visual references I'm fascinated in the ability of memorials to bridge both time and space with those far removed from the act in question. This ability and the language of memorial and remembrance is an interesting and exciting aspect for such a project which takes it's starting point that of the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW1.

Early consideration for how the work by the children could be incorporated into an installation. Consideration must be made for the time and economic limits of such a project.

I'm keen to explore not only through the visual arts this question of the language of memorial. The medium of words both specific and emotional, abstract or exact, factual and poetic.  Words would seem an exciting form both as text and speech to work with. It would be great to have the chance to work with perhaps poets or writers in parallel on such a theme but money and time are not endless. As we say, something for another day.

 < some notes on the intro session and how to link it in the minds of the children to the theme of the WW1 and then the act of remembering.