Faculty of Art

Cross-Disciplinary Art: Life Studies

Olivia Pare

Memory's Paradox

An antique chair inherited from the artist's great-grandparents has been reupholstered to be tactically appealing. The chair sits on another heirloom: a textile once again inherited from the artist's great-grandparents. Lavender sits underneath the chair, perfuming the air and a line of the artists own baby teeth litter the front of the textile. Repetitive piano music played by the artist's mother, and from the artist's childhood plays on a loop.

“Sudden, episodic reminiscence triggered by certain stimuli (scent especially) possesses viscerality and substance that are absent in the quotidien encounter with memory. These nostalgic flashbacks can be involuntarily induced to an extent that is extremely vivid and almost hallucinatory. As such, they (among other functions of memory) have the capacity for positive and even therapeutic applications. However, while memory pursues the healing of traumas, it simultaneously and perversely allows them to persist. The constant revisiting of traumas, PTSD, BPD and numerous other mental health issues are considered repetition compulsions; often negative manifestations of the exercise of memory. This work references memory as the basis of psychoanalysis and as a recurring paradox in the works of Freud, allowing for the exploration of its similarly dichotomous, paralogical role in coping with trauma. The revitalization of an antique object using tactile, olfactory and auditory stimuli manages to draw viewers in physically and emotionally, but progressively the work becomes distorted and disturbing. An empty chair beckons viewers to sit or otherwise interact. Soft fur and realistic skin provoke intentional, caring touch while lavender (a personally nostalgic scent) perfumes the air. Beautiful piano music from childhood plays to cultivate an immersive, multi-sensory experience that bears the initial impression of comfort and tranquility. Though, closer inspection and increasing stretches of time reveal gory, wound-like bodily forms and the once pleasing piano music is stumbled over, being completely and frustratedly restarted with each mistake, never surpassing a few bars. Visual injury is a literal representation of trauma - both physical and emotional in the form of loss through illness or other long-term, medically burdensome complications. Stitches sewn in the skin using proper surgical technique communicate the painfully slow process of healing, but working with a needle and thread is also a learned, inherited process that recalls family tradition and as such, further symbolizes repetition and interconnection. Thus, a repetitive cycle (the replaying of fragments of time) manages to transform between comforting and familiar, and exhausting and sickening. This work, as a conglomerate of personal memory functions and dysfunctions, grapples with an irresolvable paradox. ”