Amy McIntyre | mixed media artist

statement

Memory evokes both presence and absence.  Memories are representations of death as well as memoirs of life.  They are past life-stories that are only kept alive within us.  A memory marks a passed moment to which we cannot return.  Despite our attempts, these moments cannot be captured or preserved.  Memory represents the passage of time and the passing of the self.  It is a constant reminder that life is an ephemeral illusion in perpetual transformation.  The realization of impermanence leaves us grasping for something that is unfaltering.

In response to the transience of life, we may become involved in the ritual of constant mourning.  We mourn what has passed because it is gone but not yet forgotten and for the hope that mourning can bring the past back to life.  Mourning involves a subconscious fantasy of resurrection and hesitant recognition of loss.  We hope for reunion with what has passed and despair at its loss.  In our remembrance we mourn a part of ourselves that has past.  As we mourn what we cannot let go of and get past, we are given a sense of comfort and familiarity.  My work addresses mourning and memory within the paradoxical desire to preserve the ephemeral reality of life.