The Material of Memories: an evolving installation
by Natalie Billing
I hoard memories. If I can attach a memory to an item I find it very hard to dispose of that item later. “I remember therefore I am” to appropriate the classics. However I’m no longer sure if all these memories I use to define myself wrap me or bind me.
There is much talk currently about Fast Fashion, and the tons of discarded clothing swamping the Second Hand Market. However not all second hand clothing is the Bridesmaid’s Dress of Fight Club fame, loved intensely for one day and then thrown away. Some second hand clothing has been well worn, physically changed by constant wear, but now that person is gone and these possessions are adrift, disembodied.
Material of Memory is a growing and evolving installation which contrasts such Disembodied Clothing, with clothing of my own which I have kept because of the memories attached. The first is hollow, stripped back to the seams. In contrast the latter is bound and twisted with written memories into a weighty, undulating rope.
Not even the Disembodied Clothing could escape my ability to hoard memory. I found myself not selecting them randomly but because they reminded me of a person or time past. So the offcuts from the these clothes have been used to create new vessels for containing personal stories such as Woven bowls and recycled paper cards embedded with fabric.
Opening Hours:
Sat - Tue
10.30am to 4pm
Opening Event: Sun 2nd July 12 - 3pm
Closing Event: Sun 30th July 12 -3pm
Contact:
web: nataliebilling.net
email: natbilling@iinet.net.au
instagram: @natalie_billing