Sophie Olsen-Hennessy
Unforgettable Marvels and Inconceivable Traumas
“These eyes have seen so much. Too much... These eyes have witnessed unforgettable marvels and inconceivable traumas... What do her eyes see now as her mind, always the hostage of too much memory, grows dim in the long dark corridors of forgetfulness.”
This year I have been looking at identity, the human condition and the events that occur in our lives that we endure/enjoy. Being inspired by one woman's story in particular, I began to look into my own life and the objects that draw me back to a certain time or memory. To most these objects hold no great significance, but to me they represent the artefacts that I have either treasured or tried to discard. Some objects for me are removed from their original context, stripped of identifying information and given a new meaning. The black backgrounds refuse to specify what these were or could have been: there’s a negation in action that seems important, that the events are not transparent, that my thoughts remain private. The story of the woman that inspired my work is terrible and deserves to be told. Others stories like mine can exist in the in-between, unknown spaces for a little longer.
