Remember Me, Peterborough and London, 2017-2018. A project supported by and conceived with Metal Peterborough with ACE funding.
I spent a year as an artist-in-residence at Metal, Peterborough on a research and development project about inherited family memory, how we remember, and the idea of what a modern heirloom could be.
From group discussions and communal meals, to one-to-one chats, I spoke to as many Peterborough residents as possible about their experiences and thoughts on the subject, with a particular interest in older people.
I spent time with, among others, elders from the Ugandan Hindu community, an older men’s cycling club, a group of nuns, and the Italian elders lunch club (where I was fed extremely well!) Everywhere I visited, I asked people about their lives and their belongings. Talking about family memory has proved to be a catalyst for an incredible and generous sharing of stories.
Hours and hours of stories have been collected and digested. Particular themes kept cropping up and I now have a carefully chosen compendium of tales and details which illustrate the numerous and disparate ways in which we remember others and perpetuate the memories of ourselves.
This delicate archive is currently in development to become a touring project.
