Marilyn Gaffney "Statement memories"

"Memories”

"Mind map II collage”

"Mind map XVI”

I am interested in our relationship to landscape and how particular places hold memories and can embody emotional responses. A snapshot memory of a place may be recreated through automatic responses with material as a form of remembering. This relationship of memory and landscape brings about an emotional response because the place holds sentiment.

The notion of Urban Memory and the loss of certain things within a place when it has been changed features as research within my work. Working intuitively, I re-create places previously visited through my memory. My work involves the process of collage and the printing technique through using inkjet printers, photocopiers and scanners. Manipulation of the image by printing process with zooming, ink running out and other printer ‘mistakes’ informs the work with textures of a language close to painting. I am interested in the combination of representation and abstraction in painting. The non-representational is met through the ‘mistake’ marks made in the printing process, while the representational are created by building up of textures and tones.

Introducing a spatial dimension as a result of the sculptural pieces created; manipulation of paper is pivotal to the sculptural works. Stitching paper together creates forms that appear embodied of a person within the land and the overall piece creating a presence within the space. There are a wider range of possibilities to the space as a result when introducing the three-dimensional aspect into the work.