Tracing City Memory

This is a work inspired by various textures in Glasgow, as my environmental design background has had profound impact on my artwork. Every time I visit the streets, I will explore those textures, materials on the architecture surface, the trace, moss seem like recording the buildings' memories. And I captured some of them, made a collage to represent their different aesthetics. This process revealed the possibilities of combining old materials with man-made trace and nature. There is a sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, who discussed the concept of collective memory and wrote that historical memory reaches us through written and visual records. The collective memory and architecture are closely interrelated, as collective memory relies on material reality. Architectures witness the evolution of the city, their textures form various abstract images that may record what happens in the city, and embody values, experience, ideas from human and nature, which become the collective memory of the city. On the process, I chose 12 textures to create different sizes of cubes, reused waste wood board from architecture models to painting. These a series of cubes can be moved to create various collage, representing different feeling of city streets as well as searching city’s “genius loci”—its distinct atmosphere on the streets and protective spirit and memories of architecture.

Reference:
Cameron McEwan, ‘Thinking about collective memory as material reality’, Architecture of Analogy, 2013;
Anastasia Savinova, ‘Genius Loci’ (photography work), 2015.