Dottie-may Aston

BA Fine Art

Nascence of Nostalgia

This series depicts the birth of memory associated with an object. The human form in them is the representation of memory and how, through a slow labour, this memory develops within the objects - to the extent that, when viewing an item, all that is seen is a memory. The use of objects with figures in my work explores the necessity that human beings feel to imbue those objects with memories and emotions. Shells represent wombs that give birth to a nostalgia, imitating the form of a humanoid that will eventually surpass the shell. The first piece of the series shows a glimmer of what is to grow from the shell. The last painting in the series depicts the fully developed memory. Representing memory in human form, these paintings attempt to convey the emotional attachment humans have to objects. Memory is held within the viewer. It is not for me to dictate what should or should not be understood in these paintings. These objects are designed to be free of this world, in the same way as the feeling evoked has no tangible grounding.