Conversations
(2023)
The ‘Conversations’ project comprises a series of hand-composed collages, based on a personal archive of photographs and postcards. Collage art relies on pre-made materials. These materials bring with them a distinct sense of their own history, style, and place, contributing to the overall texture of the final piece. So, the choice of postcards as a medium was deliberate. In an era of text messages and emails, when people’s lives are digitised and marked by constant movement and fleeting experiences, postcards provide a tactile connection to our memories. By making my private archive public, I breathe new life by sharing my private archive, I breathe new life into both personal experiences and the stories embedded in the postcards.
The postcards I have chosen are more than just simple greetings: they were sent by friends or family while on their travels, capturing their personal experiences and thoughts. When combined with my still-life photographs, collages create a visual dialogue that intertwines the stories of others with my own moments of introspection. As I look upon each composition, a story unfolds, narrating the journey of the person behind the postcard or the inspiration behind a still-life photograph. At the core of the project lies a conversation, an exchange of information between the photographer, senders, viewers, and subjects within the collages. The project highlights the value of physical objects in preserving memories in the virtual era.