AD MEMORIAM CHARCOALS
Temporal Charcoal Drawings
The Ad Memoriam Charcoals were created by members if the public through intimate workshops exploring our relationship to moments through memory. Participants were asked to bring an object to the workshop which represented a significant time or moment in their lives. Using this object as a starting point, the participants shared stories and drew charcoal responses to their objects on large sheets of paper. This was followed by a period of free-writing, and significant words or phrases from the writings were incorporated into the works.
​
Participants were then asked to select a section of the works to preserve, and a smaller section to erase. These smaller secions are placed on 'Ad Memoriam Clocks', kinetic devices which slowly erase the charcoal marks, leaving only traces, smudges and distortions. Though the memories are never fully erased, they are reduced to traces and residual marks, mimicking the process of time on recollection. Through this process of preservation and erasure, the participants are asked to be intentional in how they engage with their personal histories, how to engage with the past in the present, and to choose what parts of their past they take into the future.
