Description
It is said that memory changes whenever It is remembered, and its revision becomes a new truth. The action of exploiting memories for the purpose of storytelling ‘s often done without conscious thought. When created, memories are subjective to their beholder and when recited, are adjusted according to their audience. The series is concerned with stones of caution, superstition, and survival in the bush that were passed on to Millar Baker as a child. These cautions came in the form of warnings, myths, stories of ghosts and hauntings from her Aboriginal and migrant parents and grandparents. Carried from a young age, these expeöences and stories become embellished or accrue heightened emotional resonances – they shift and change in their constant retelling. While some recollections become fictionalised, others cinematic and profound. The stories and memories that are planted as early seeds grow and change as we experience life.Taking on the role of both human and supernatural-like characters, the artist avoids obviously stating who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist leaving the decision up to the audience. I Will Survive are enigmatic in the content of the stories that are retold – with clear storytelling structure and notions of place eschewed for a more abstracted image that give us a glimpse into a memory rather than a truth -as if turning on a light in a dark room for a split second and encountering a surreal scene whose ultimate meaning is left with the audience. Photographed between location and studio portraiture, I Will Survive was constructed through digital collage, overlapping and ayering images, surveying the ways that memories shift over time and memory becomes constructed.
