Near where my great aunt was born

In this installation, a lost history is pieced together, weaving together history, memory, and fiction. The work is based on the semi-fictional story of a female artist ancestor who lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland, 80 years ago. The artist takes on the persona of her great aunt, wanders the streets of Glasgow where she may have lived and worked, constructing for herself an ancestral female mentor. The finished installation included one central video on wide screen with image and text documenting the journey of the artist as herself, as well as dressed as her great aunt, on the streets of Glasgow. One smaller flanking monitor showed the artist silently mouthing phrases like “I want to speak to you”;  another small monitor showed the artist’s hand writing similar phrases in white dust. On one wall are 12 images of Scottish landscape seen from a moving vehicle, framed and lit by picture lamps. On the facing wall, two large framed images – of the artist herself and of her great aunt.

Also completed as a solo videotape, Being Seen…Disappearing, 10 minutes, 2003.

Details

1992

Multi-media including video, photo, sound