Mull, the Second Installment
The experience I had on a remote island in Scotland, the Isle of Mull, has fueled my pieces in this show. In my attempts to recreate and replay environments and events from the past, I have explored the way memories are created and destroyed. I examine the ability to recreate sense of place by immersing the audience in imagery, exploring the action of looking and the idea of the container.
Using photography and installation, I created small environments to immerse the viewer in the experience of the Island. 56º26'27.6" N 5º39'08.5" W is designed to completely involve the audience in the sphere of the island, directing the gaze to a specific set of objects and photographs. In a similar manner, 56º25'47.6" N 5º39'21.9" W uses lenses to direct the viewer's eye to specific photographs, removing gallery context and creating an image that, while small, engulfs the audience's field of vision. 56º25'50.9" N 5º39'41.1" W and 56º25'28.3" N 5º39'21.8" W consumes the viewer through sheer size, towering over the audience.
These methods of overwhelming the audience's gaze place the viewer in a created experience of the island, engaging ideas of memory and place. The coordinates recall physical space while the ephemeral quality of the memories represented question the actuality of the experience.
Each piece functions to cause the viewer to examine the act of looking through interaction and creates an experience of the Isle of Mull. The memories I have of the island have warped over time, becoming increasingly surreal as they become more distant. Through the recreation of uncertain and distorted memories, I have retraced my steps and reexamined the island through a new perspective.
Not being able to physically or mentally return to the experiences I had on the Isle of Mull has fueled this project. In the attempt to recreate and replay environments and events from the past, many memories are created and many are destroyed.
While photography and sculpture are often used to represent absolute truth, I examined the ability of these mediums to demonstrate the middle ground between reality and fiction. I used the only evidence I have that both the island and my interactions with it exist, photographs I used as documentation at the time and Google Earth. Through the study of the island’s landscape and the process of recreating uncertain memories, I retraced my steps and was able to explore the island once more.