Sweet, Sweet Memory Chamber INSTALLATION (2009)

Red artificial silk, pink silk ribbon, pink fabric with flower pattern, bamboo poles, metal wire, electric cable, light bulb, and old wedding photos printed on hard plastic boards

H240cm x W210cm x D210cm

The Sweet, Sweet Memory Chamber was a site-specific installation developed with the help of the kind people of Liujie Village (part of Bamboo Village) who provided the wonderful wedding photos for the interior space. The installation was part of the Yilan ”Art in Village” International Arts Workshop that took place in the summer of 2009.

Old photos have in abundance a certain quality that most other artforms lack. Photos seem to capture traces of time and does it so emphatically, the feeling of authenticity in the moment frozen for posterity, is almost tangible. It is a unique quality that can serve many purposes. I wanted to explore the way in which the old, charming wedding photos could help stir the collective memory of the villagers of upper and lower Liujie.

Marriage is perhaps one of the most important institutions of civilization. In its ideal form, it ties two individuals through a public pledge and proclaims their intent to start a family. In addition, invisible bonds are created between the relatives of the bride and groom, which in turn help to forge a stronger community. By extension, these bonds reach out through the cities, regions, and the nation and even have the potential to span the world.

The Sweet, Sweet Memory Chamber was conceived as a benevolent, intrusive exercise. The deep red, silken cube has the appearance of a strange, spatial manifestation in the middle of the common room of the Liujie village centre. The entrance of the Sweet, Sweet Memory Chamber is facing away from the entrance to the common room. The point was to force visitors to approach and inspect the anomaly before it would reveal the secrets of the inner sanctum.

As the visitors enter the rosy, nuptial chamber they find themselves in an intimate space saturated in an ambience of love and melancholy. The photos were hanging from the ceiling of the chamber, gently swaying in the wind currents created by the visitors. The intention was to permeate the space with an animating pulse, a subtle way to introduce the notion that the photos possessed a life of their own. Each wedding photo would move as if touched by invisible hands reaching out across time as if to beckon the visitor to return to a past full of promise and happiness.

CMN