I read a gorgeous piece of writing by Margaret Sweatman, RED SEA, on the site thescalesproject.com and afterwards was put in mind of this work of mine, SEAMARKS. (The Scales Project is a thoughtful space for conversations between artists on the on the state of our changing world; check it out!)
I felt the pieces shared something, though indirectly. Now they sit in dialogue here: https://thescalesproject.com/conversations/conversation27/
If memory and place conjoin to give context for our identities, this piece of mine is rooted in that crux.
For years I couldn’t comprehend how I’d be able to go on without my mother’s presence on this earth. As a way of shoring myself up for her loss I began a series focussing on the place she grew up. As a small island, Møn, Denmark is threatened by rising sea levels and the risk of coastal flooding from climate change. Side note, UNESCO designated Møn as the country’s first biosphere reserve in 2017.
Everything is connected.
Milan Kundera said “the brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.” This painting is indexed by the totemic signs and motifs gathered in my poetic memory; asking how we take on the weight of time, call up the essence of memory, make sense of our personal narratives and myths. For me it begins like this..
Touchstones. Sea marks.
Sunshine, under a blue sky; seaside pleasures, long ago.
A smooth, flat stone cast artfully dances over the water’s sparkling surface.
Hallmarks of an island far from here.
Whitest chalk; inky flint; honeyed, milky amber; enigmatic fossils.
These are ciphers, encoded and written in the earth.
An invocation is called forth in the rhythm of lapping waves..
The same rhythm rooted far down in our biology - in the circulation of the blood that goes forth from the heart and comes back, and in the repetition of the breath.
She is here.
SEAMARKS Oil on Canvas 60 x 120 cm
