insight into ‘mummo’

Using a mixture of moving image and experimental imagery I have created a series titled ‘Mummo’ that brings awareness to dementia, my Grandmother and my own memories surrounding Finland.

This project is also a personal experience between nature and art, and the ways in which our minds are able to collect information through light, colour and texture.

Initially, I wanted to create work surrounding dementia. I wasn’t sure what my aim was, I just knew that I had to connect my work to the illness in some way because my Grandmother had unfortunately been diagnosed it a few months ago.

I invested my time into learning more about dementia and began to build a mind map of words that I felt closely related to the topic.

Lost, confused and missing were just a few of the feelings that I felt connected with the illness. From these words I began to research artists that have explored these attributes within their own work. 

One artist I became familiar with was, Angelica Garcia, a photographer who merges the line between photography and art. Garcia uses different methods to erase strangers faces. The project concentrates on forgotten faces and the way in which we can lose contact with people. I became intrigued with her use of colour and the way she manipulated her images in a way that visually explores the ‘movement of memory’.

My main focus became memory and through this I was sent a small collection of found imagery from my Father that my Grandmother had taken of me. From looking at Garcia’s work I was influenced to ‘move memory’ and affect it in some way, so I started to experiment with the pictures and manipulate them physically.

I really loved the effect that it gave the image and it created an interesting atmosphere too. The work reminded me of Francis Bacon’s ‘Screaming Pope’, the way that the Pope is trapped in a ‘cage’ creates a similar feeling to what people with dementia can experience. I also think that because the Pope is an authoritative figure, it can resemble the way someone who used to be independent can no longer rely on themselves and are forced to seek help due to the illness.

Proceeding from this, I went out to take pictures of things that reminded me of Finland or gave me comfort of my childhood in some way. I wanted to associate my photos with nature and concentrated on looking at areas that either had water or forest – two things Finland is full of.

My inspiration was then moved to paintings and I started to focus on Brett Amory and Pablo Picasso. Two artists who are very different in the way that they work but both who have properties in which influenced my final works.

Amory’s series ‘Anonymous’ represented lack of detail and confusion and I really admired his work and how, similarly to Garcia, he wiped away the faces of these strangers to show a lack of connection.

On the other hand, Picasso within his cubist work, was “fascinated with construction and deconstruction” (MFA, 2018) and it led it me to pay more attention to detail in general. By deconstructing each part of the picture it makes the image more unrecognisable and distorted and I loved the way in which he dissected his work in order to find deeper meaning.

 Challenging myself to be more abstract with my work, I captured more environments and continued to experiment.

During the process of capturing landscapes and environments with my camera, I also began to piece together small video clips of the area around me that I felt familiar with or reminded me of Finland. I began to think of ways of how I would present my work if it were to be displayed in an exhibition, and I felt that moving image alongside my work would be quite interesting.

 My aim for my short video was to do the opposite to my prints. I wanted the footage to look clear, and I also wanted sound to be prevalent and for it to be recognisable too. Instead of creating confusion; which is presented in my prints, I wanted to bring memories back – and with both being shown simultaneously I wanted to bring awareness to the separation between the two - my own memories and my Grandmothers, and how they both share similar colours and atmospheres but are both different because dementia has broken the connection between my Grandmothers brain and her eyes.

Through development of the video I was moved to add Finnish. The language is complex and I wanted the viewer to feel confused whilst watching.