I present this final post and diptych as an ode to the husband and wife of Archive 1.0019. Witness features two monochromatic photographs that focus on the fragile nature of memory.
After engaging so closely with Archive 1.0019, I became obsessed with highlighting the universal condition of the vulnerability of memory. I occupied my practice with the language of photography and I embraced the fragile interplay of light and dark, of heavier areas of information contrasting against the quieter lines. As a stranger I could intimately relate with the subject in a subtle way, and ultimately I was able to emulate two imagined, ethereal moments in my final pieces for Saudade.
These works materialised whilst searching for a “true moment,” and this process involved an uncovering; extracting moments from the super 8 films stills, projecting multiple layers, rephotographing large projected images, and etching intricate drawings onto the film medium itself.
I remain motivated by the organic process of layering multiple images; from the large projected areas that was rephotographed, to the delicate line drawings made on blank stretches of film. It so beautifully resembles memory with it’s reconstructions and deconstructions that transpire on a moment-by-moment basis. The interplay between these images extracted from the archive and the “etched” drawings reproduced from my personal memory, has allowed the diptych to enter into a conversation that I hope will echo the memory of the pair from Archive 1.0019. The final works are evocative, textural and emotional and, in this moment, they are the only versions that will ever exist in my memory.
Film Negative, © Monique Prinsloo
I am proud to have been included in the EAC’s Saudade Project. In looking back at the full process, I am happy for each blog post and every work created towards the project – they form part of a larger visual diary that has had a noteworthy impact on my personal practice. But in admitting that the project has reached its completion, I cannot help but be filled with a vague anxiety. I feel almost disconnected; in parting with personal accounts of this project, I am emotionally letting go of everything I’ve collected and stored for Archive 1.0019. But in parting ways with Archive 1.0019, I am now creating space for the next project’s challenges and I am excited to make use of approaches that I’ve adopted in this Saudade Archive Project.
“As Spectator I wanted to explore not as a question (a theme), but as a wound”
– Roland Barthes