Memories came flooding in, 2022

Used brass and steel coil springs, metal wire.

510 x 40 x 22 cm

‘Memories came flooding in’ depicts the moment when the past floods into the present. The work is composed of used upholstery coil springs I collected and assembled. Each spring is manufactured the same way, but due to its used condition, each has a unique human memory imprint, emotional charge, shape and colour with its rust marking the passing time.

Forming a continuous wave pouring down from the ceiling to spread on the floor, this work represents the emotional state caused by involuntary memory that occurs when cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past.

For me, the coil spring with its association to the mattress especially brings emotional personal traumas I experienced related to my past.

Inspired by the concept of palimpsest - something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form, I use the coil spring and its DNA-shaped helix form to embody genetic memory. The idea that our memories are stored in our genes is a very recent and controversial one. It has been accepted since the experiments of Wilder Penfield back in the 50s and his 1978 book ‘ Mystery of the Mind’ that hidden away in each of us is a permanent record of our past. Psychologist Carl Jung has theorized that we're born with the memories and experiences of our ancestors imprinted on our DNA. Experiments showed that a traumatic event could affect the DNA in sperm and alter the brains and behaviour of subsequent generations. In order to provide access to genes needed for the encoding and storage of memories, brain cells snap open their DNA, breaking both strands.

How do we know things we never learned ? Reminiscence of past lives memories or reincarnation ? How our DNA carry memories of traumatic stress down the generations ?

Photo credit  @unit1galleryworkshop @paultuckerstudio