by tarla.patel
In the evening of the 25th November, was the exhition launch. It was a nice event, where we were able to speak to people that had come along about the work. For me the highlight was speaking to some of the people I had interviewed and seeing their reaction and response to their portrait and/or story. It was great to show along Rachel and see all the hardwork we had created in this exhibition, and I am looking forward to the artist talk.
Reflections on how we remember
This collection of work has been created from small sections of transcribed interviews. Placing small sections of dialogue into an Artificial Intelligence software application called Dall-e. Dall-e takes text-based descriptions and creates an image. Some of the text I used from the transcripts include:
My family’s Jamaican grandparents in the summer, my friend’s dad would always bring up box every day.
I started growing vegetables that that connection to the earth and that connection to growing food in particular. Just feels like part of my heritage and part of my identity.
These images are to me, are impressions of memories. These images are imperfect, AI generated artwork is still in development and the images created use algorithms that access millions if not billions of images and reference points. The images generated are unfinished, unpolished, they blur or look out of place. But if you squint and don’t look to closely, they have a realistic quality. In relation to our memories becoming less detailed the older we get, correlates to the imperfection of these images from the Dall-e app.
The world map shows, the origin for some of these stories and their connection to England. A demonstration of how stories cross borders and seas.
Artcore Cabin portraits and landscapes of nature
During the Diwali festival in November, I was able to set up a small studio in the Artcore cabin. With a portable background and lights, I invited people to have the photograph taken and tell me a story connected to the Seeds to Home project. In this way I was able to create a relationship with the sitter through storytelling. The photographs, show a wonderful mix of visitors, they have been displayed alongside photographs of plants and nature. The photographs of farming land have been taken by my mother Ramaben Patel, on her visit to her childhood farm in India.
Through this work, the stories will be available in as an audio recording and through written transcript. A short film has been created to explain my thoughts about the project.
Polaroid threads: experimental pieces
Throughout this residency, I’ve listened to the stories people have shared with me, influenced by the art on the themes of migration, identity, place, and memory. The threads that keep these memories alive can be easily cut or lose their definition over time. Threads of time is saying that has a commonality in most cultures. Using Polaroid photographs, which is a medium that is already known for recording fleeting and special moments, have been used with sewing thread to show the pieces of these collective memories and experiences.
I have followed the form of nature and created geometric forms as a way of changing and evolving from the original shape. A metaphor for how the cultural landscape is changing with the transition of people through migration and settlement.
Seeds to Home Projection and Video
Main Projection
Fragments of conversations have been entwined with landscape images; giving connectivity to nature and our own personal stories of migration and memory.
Video – are my own thoughts on the project and how it developed, this has been voiced over footage of my mother in her garden; cutting mint.