MA Contemporary Art and Archaeology
University of the Highlands and Islands Orkney
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Module 1 research paper - in pursuit of presence: female intergenerational narratives and materiality​
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Introduction
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Through research-led explorations, my research project ‘in pursuit of presence’ uncovers lost histories within the context of female intergenerational narratives. In order to bring attention to what is lost, and simultaneously what remains, I have been exploring the ways in which distance and inevitable connection oppose one other within a generational context. Whilst holding space for my experience of maternal absence, I have embarked on a project which attempts to grasp and connect the historic lives of the women within my maternal lineage, of whom have spent more than four hundred years inhabiting the Hampshire landscape (Ancestry, 2024). Although the research undertaken focuses more specifically upon the last twelve generations of women, the work endeavours to concurrently represent those beyond them; of whom are unknown and lost to the past.
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As this essay unfolds, discovery will be made in the form of traces of tentative truths uncovered about the lives of these women culminating in an initial artistic exploration. Fragments of archives are metaphorically captured and concealed within assembled materials, all of which are brought together with significance and meaning, or ‘the selective recovery, reconstitution and restoration of the fragmented material traces of the past’ (Hamilakis et al. 2009, p.285). Within this, complex and collective themes of illegitimacy, intergenerational instability and absent figures are juxtaposed with unity, unconditional care and empowering resilience. Simultaneously through the lens of inaccessible sources and hidden truths, the project has been consistently underpinned by the doors which remain closed, and the ways in which this affects those who survive. On the other hand, there is a deep concern with cognitive dissonance and a reclaiming of history that is taking place, utilising myself as a processor, weaver and assembler of fragments in order to draw attention to limited voices.