PHOTOGRAPHY
A LIVING ARCHIVE
I have been writing diaries for over 30 years, sometimes regularly and sometimes infrequently. I started my diary work at the approach of a significant transition in my life. I decided to revisit the diaries and to create from each one something new through the process of re-reading, indexing and transforming each one. Writing a diary is essentially for oneself, and this, of course is what makes it private, 'a place of asylum in space; but also an archive in time', an uncertain genre that sits between subjectivity and objectivity. One of my motivations for this project was my need to either destroy or transform the diary to protect it from unwanted readers which can cause an even more violent response and may lead to betrayal and destruction of another form. Through my research I am processing information about work that has already been done on archives and diaries and am excited about the thought and creative processes that I am going through to explore this way of working. I have chosen to 'end' these diaries by transforming or destroying them partially, using the diary to 'freeze time'. Through this process the diary becomes a living archive and offers possibilities to create different readings and histories. The work will give the viewer the ability to reflect on and intuitively be part of the process that have created this fusion - the growing, the burning and the exhuming as the diaries transform into objects and objects into space and time. As the first reality of the text becomes masked, the viewer has to imagine what lies beneath and to explore a new meaning, seeing the possibility of revival in these changed objects.
NO GOING BACK
The exhibition 'No Going Back' reflects my practice that responds and evolves constantly according to global and personal contexts and events. Some of the work was scheduled to be shown in 2020 just as the world was stopped in its tracks by the global pandemic and it was no longer 'safe' to have contact with other other human beings. In 2022 although on the surface there is some semblance of a 'return to normal' as experienced up till now in the UK and the global north, it becomes increasingly obvious that the 'normal' that we have had, as the world continues to heat up, will not be possible or available for us or for the next generations. Since the end of 2018 and especially since becoming involved with Extinction Rebellion I identify as an artist/activist - an artivist - I have developed my skills as a film maker and writer as well as a visual artist and photographer. I use found imagery in my work, from newspapers, magazines, the internet and social media and which represent aspects of events that are happening in the world - e.g. climate emergency, war, displacement and mass migration. Although I did not consciously set out to produce a series of work on these themes, it became a visual expression and outpouring of my grief at these apocalyptic times. I hope, through manipulating and re-contextualising these images using my artist’s palette of digital and analogue technologies, I am also able to represent and be reminded of the frailty and fragility as well as the strength and resilience of our world and the human spirit.
MOTHER
This series of photographs, from my family album after the death of my mother, became a labour of love and a memorial and testimony to her life. As a disabled working-class Welsh woman, her life was defined by marriage and motherhood, being a good girl, and eventually a good wife and mother. After much deliberation and research into the pages of my family album, I chose images that traced her progression through her life, from babyhood, held by her father (my grandfather), through adolescence, maturity courtship, marriage, motherhood and finally in her older age, hands showing the arthritis that had so limited her life choices. Her hands were always special and emotive to me - clever hands - green fingers that cultivated beautiful house plants, and that sensitively played the piano and organ. Hands that held us as children and that at tunes expressed tension and disapproval (e.g. through the tightened hold on her handbag at one of her daughters’ weddings). One version of my family narrative made possible by the transformation of black and white ‘snaps’ into telling details connection lives and stories across generations.
MAKING CONTACT
I have been looking at and re-contextualising photographs from my family album, with particular emphasis on the ways in which family members have touched and been touched within the frame of the photograph. As a result, this has highlighted the closeness of some of the family groups and the distance of others through two generations - the family I was brought up with and the one I created. We invest our family albums with a huge importance, yet at the same time, the way in which families are photographed for these albums is limited and institutionalised, showing only times of celebration - e.g. a wedding, a birthday, a holiday. Photographs are taken in a particular way, and this creates an image which is generally accepted as the way we want to represent our families for the next generation and beyond. Documenting a family event may act as a way of distancing oneself from a more ‘genuine’ or truthful reading. Using the notion of the familial gaze to look at the images, I intentionally chose archetypal images that could be part of the photo albums of many white western European families. I am questioning in this work, whether the images can tell any truth about ourselves, our families, and our identities. An important aspect of this work is for the manipulation of the images in the darkroom, by using tissue paper to emphasise specific aspects of the image and to hide others. NB. This has changed massively since digital photography has become the usual way of documenting family occasions. This series is accompanied with a hand-made book that contains sixteen texts that I have written in relation to each image. To make my point that the same image can be read or interpreted in a multiplicity of ways depending on what you know already about the family history, I invite the viewer to read any statement alongside any of the photographs, and to make their own reading or interpretation of the image.
MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
My work is inspired by conventional photographic genres e.g. the family album, historic and archival images and postcard images. By re-contextualising the images, new meanings can be created and the images can be read in a multiplicity of ways. 'Mothers and Daughters' is inspired by the family album, and is a response and attempt to explore in more depth, relationships that are hidden or simply touched upon or hinted at within the conventional family album genre. I worked with the six mother/daughter pairs, interviewing them all and asking them the same questions about their relationship with one another. Although the idea of displaying images of mothers and daughters as a means of change is a fairly simplistic one, I decided to aim towards representing some of the complexities of the mother-daughter bond. Motherhood and 'daughterhood' are both socially constructed identities bound by history and culture. Our cultural legacy of images of motherhood belongs mainly to Christianity – the Virgin and the (boy)child. The final photos that are shown here are the culmination of two photography sessions with each pair, the first working in collaboration with the pair about how they wanted their relationship to be represented photographically. Having examined the photos and read the interviews thoroughly, I then directed the second shoot in a way that I felt showed aspects of the relationships that the mothers and daughters had shared with me.
ABBANDONATA
In 2011 I lived in Sardinia for six months during which time my partner and I explored the countryside in a camper van. On one of these trips, we discovered the village of Old Gairo, a small village in Ogliastra, a region in Sardinia, that was almost entirely destroyed by a terrible flood in 1951. We drove along the winding roads and came across abandoned houses whose balconies were twisted and broken. We discovered that the inhabitants of the village had been evacuated to nearby Gairo, due to a flood that threatened to destroy the village. Walking through the cobbled streets, we met a man who directed us to a shoe shop that had been left exactly as it had been, and had somehow remained untouched since. I did not touch anything in the shop, photographing it in the very limited light from a dirty window and appreciating the atmosphere that remained in the dusty space.
ABANDONED MINES
Always fascinated by what is left behind that leaves traces of memory for us to fill in the missing pieces, using our imagination to create a new image of what was here before. Taken on a road between Ingurtosu and the west coast of Sardinia are the remains of mining sites. Since ancient times, the areas of the Medio Campidano and of Arbus were exploited because of the presence of copper, silver, and lead ores. But it’s during the 19th century that the most important mines started to work and their remains are still visible. The mining sites of Ingurtosu and Montevecchio can be visited and they are both included in the Mining Geopark of Sardinia. These places are now impressive examples of industrial archaeology, silent witnesses of people who lived and worked there.
TRUE STORIES FOR CHANGE
This work is my contribution to a large project in which six artists were invited to make some work that highlighted inequality in Cambridge. I was invited by The Cambridge Commons, an organisation that raises awareness of and tackles inequality in Cambridge. But to fight something, you have to know what it is…and what it feels like. In collaboration with Pivotal, five artists were commissioned five local artists and a songwriter to create works inspired by conversations with Cambridge people who have experienced inequality. I chose to work with my friend and neighbour Sally who has lived in Cambridge all her life. We talked about her background and her life and looked through her family albums and photos hidden in a suitcase under her bed to produce the photos that are shown here.
THE MYTH OF RETURN
"Through their simultaneous awareness of different realities, exiles, refugees and migrants can create a uniquely plural vision of society, questioning the notions of objective reality and suggesting new ways forward” Edward Said in 'Reflections on Exile' The Myth of Return brings together Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Refugee women and women who live in exile to explore ideas of home, belonging and identity. An opportunity to celebrate and define ourselves in our own words and through the use of objects that represent something of who we are. The Myth of Return is a collaboration between two artists, friends and colleagues Norah Al-Ani and Kay Goodridge – one of Iraqi-Irish origin the other a white English/Scottish woman. The phrase which has become the exhibition title, describes the feelings and sense of longing experienced by people who have been displaced from their countries of birth. Uniquely described by the women interviewed and photographed in this exhibition are the experiences of belonging and not belonging either in the home of their birth or in the place they are living and may have been living for a long time.
The Myth of Return – an Installation
The installation uses sound pieces of women in conversation, photographs, words and images.
We interviewed them and asked them questions about their lives… questions that have perhaps been asked before – ones that do not recede although the answers may change over the years. The women asked themselves who they are. Where do they come from, where do they belong, how does their family history affect their lives now? During the interviews, my role as a white woman was to be quiet, to listen and to learn. We asked the women to bring three objects that were important to them. The objects they brought became the conduit for their stories. The domestic space, filled with women’s voices, became a sound-studio and a photographic studio - the stage upon which stories were told and embellished, where identities were examined and picked over, along with the sharing of secrets of half-forgotten dreams, passions, and longings. As the women’s dual heritage creates a unique lens through which they see and experience the world, the images and sound-piece together becomes one installation that allows the audience an insight into these women’s views of the world. A space is created where the women are able to expand into their rightful place – in the center of the debate that questions common assumptions about exile and migration.
THE SPACE BETWEEN
The Space Between endeavors to bridge the gap between knowledge and understanding: the knowledge that because of wars and famine, millions of people are displaced every year and have to leave their homes, their lives, the people and the countries that they love, in order to start a new life from scratch in an unknown country and culture: the understanding of what this means to the people who experience it. The Space Between is the journey from one country to another – being forced, because of circumstance, death threats, war and oppression to leave a place where life was good. The brutality of war in one country and the brutality of becoming a refugee in another - of trying to bring all the pieces together to regain the sense of themselves that has been destroyed through war and repression. It is the experience of people broken by the loss of family, community, identity, self-respect, and joy who are working hard to mend their lives, often seeking sanctuary in the country of their oppressors who were the perpetrators of the wars from which they have escaped. The Space Between is the sense of not belonging in one country or another. It is the myth of return, the space between myth and reality – the memory of their homeland as it was, wanting to return and wishing it to be the same; but at the same time knowing that it will have changed and that they will have changed and that their lives will have moved on from their experience of having been forced to leave. The Space Between their own lives and their children’s that are fast becoming part of the new culture in which they are growing up. Children who perhaps do not understand or feel connected to their past histories, their only knowledge of which comes from their parents. I have listened to and taken photographs of four women who have told me about their lives and about their struggles and determination to survive. Within this interaction, there is a real sense of wanting to fill this space between us, and a desire to understand something of each other’s lives and experiences. I felt that I was reaching out to them and reaching into myself, questioning my own beliefs and prejudices. The process of building trust and communication between the artist and the women interviewed, and a sense of collaboration and involvement with them in all parts of the project, was key to the creation of a personal piece of work for each woman and a powerful final exhibition that was accessible to a wider audience and that attempts to span The Space Between us.
RESIDENCIES
ADDENBROOKES HOSPITAL
In the Mundane and the Monumental, as artist in residence at Addenbrookes Hospital, I produced a series of images whose starting point was the hospital's archive that houses artefacts, photographs and records from 1766. The archive and my experience of taking photographs and filming in the hospital, inspired my decision to explore the importance of the minutiae of the everyday life of people visiting or working in the hospital, as well as the huge changes and dramatic experiences that take place there. I used a combination of conventional photographic processes as well as digital photography, reflecting changes in technology that have taken place in recent history. Underlying and motivating the work is the desire to record and understand paradoxes that are present within it - fragility versus substance, the dramatic versus the everyday, stillness versus the passing of time. The work also explores the complex relationship between what has happened in the past and events that are occurring in the present. In this final series of images - I projected slides of some of the archival images and records onto artefacts that have been part of the hospital's long history, producing images that may conjure up personal or collective memories from the recent or distant past. The work could be seen as a series of visual memories that refer to what is absent from the present, yet at the same time transport this absence into the present. Our own interpretations of the work can help to close up some of the spaces left unfilled by the shelves in the archive.
GLOBAL LISTENING LIVES - THE SOUND OF HOME
'The Sound of Home', The radio documentary
As over 22 million people globally, are forced to seek asylum and to leave their country of origin and cross an international border, the world is facing its biggest displacement crisis since before the Second World War. In this programme, Kay Goodridge, artist and Nick Skelton, producer of Clubglobal world music programme, have spoken to refugees from Syria and Iraq, about how music has interwoven with various parts of their lives, before, during and after their displacement. In 'The Sound of Home', we ask them about their journeys from their homeland, about their lives now, what keeps their hopes up, and what can transport them back home in their minds. Sometimes they talk of a memory, sometimes a photograph, and sometimes the music on their mobile phones that has accompanied them throughout their lives. They talk about the circumstances that forced them to leave their countries and families behind, about their attempts to fight against oppressive regimes, how they had to run with their children and about the times they spent in refugee camps and makeshift shelters on the way. Sometimes happiness surfaces in unexpected circumstances as they speak openly from the heart. Their generosity of spirit comes through and guides the listener through their musical journeys. One of the most tragic and possibly misrepresented events in the world are issues relating to migration and the plight of refugees from many parts of the world. In this project we aim to make a series of radio programmes to be broadcast on radio stations including Cambridge 105 radio, by meeting with and interviewing refugee women and their families about their journeys from their countries of origin to the UK. The emphasis of the interviews was specifically asking them about the music that was important to them throughout their lives and journeys. By involving refugee organisations the UK we have made connections with people who have been willing to be part of this project and who have said that they have benefited from talking about their experiences. We invited people who are now living in the UK and who have come from other lands, sometimes as refugees, as survivors of religious or political oppression, to have a voice and to tell their individual stories and personal journeys, illustrated through music that has been significant to them throughout their lives. We believe that by encouraging people from different cultures, religions and backgrounds to listen to each other, that some of the fear, misinformation and negative thoughts that we learn about people who are different from ourselves can be overcome and that as a result, understanding and trust in the community can grow. Funded by 'Awards For All'.
LEPER CHAPEL - TRACES THROUGH TIME
'Traces Through Time', short film
"I invite you to enter the Chapel, come and brush against strangers and to drink from a communal keg of wine." This final installation is the result of an 8 month residency during which I have spent time initially in the Chapel, 'soaking up' the atmosphere, taking photos, making films and learning about its long history. The 12th Century Chapel, on Newmarket Road, has survived through the centuries, and still occupies a special place in the hearts of many people because of its unique atmosphere. It represents a calm refuge on the edge of busy streets and neighbourhood as well as a place whose history has isolated it from mainstream society. Interviews are with local people who have connections with the Chapel and have put together excerpts from these conversations to add to the atmosphere and sense of time passing and to emphasise the strength of the human spirit. The existence of the Chapel is the embodiment of this spirit that refuses to be beaten despite efforts to do so. Through the use of video and sound, I am making links between society in the 12th and 21st centuries in which people are still marginalised and isolated because of their differences; at the same time, the work celebrates the connections with the Chapel that are still being made in the present day.
MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY - OUT OF THE ASHES
The process of working at the Museum of Technology has been a challenging one, not least because of the many ways in which the museum, its rich history, its magnificent machinery and artefacts could be interpreted. In this final piece, the culmination of a ten month residency, I built a room within the Spackman Building which is on the site of the Museum. As Pam Halls, the museum’s curator says “This site inspires great things.” Working here has inspired me to create a space full of found objects, photographs and sounds that are the interpretation of my experience of working here . Through building this room, I have created my own museum full of a variety of artefacts that have excited and intrigued me. By working with installation, despite having taken many photographs, I wanted to find a way that went beyond the two-dimensionality of a series of photographs representing elements such as texture, light, space, the beauty of the machine perhaps, but feeling to me as if they were unable to reflect in any depth my experiences of these elements. I wanted to present them directly for people to experience by moving around and through the work. Visitors were invited, in fact, encouraged, to explore the space for themselves, and to spend time looking through drawers and cupboards; they are invited to look at, to touch or simply to sit and contemplate any of the items that I have included and to soak up the atmosphere.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Having worked with Stretch at Peterborough, Bronzefield and Askham Grange and Kirklevington prisons over the last ten years with both male and female prisoners on various photography projects, and finally at Peterborough HMP running digital storytelling workshops with Carlotta Allum, I found myself wanting to know more. I felt moved especially hearing the women talking about the effect being a prisoner has on their lives, and on their relationships with their families as well as about their early life experiences. Since researching issues around women in prison, I found out that most of the women in prison are from either working class or ethnic backgrounds, or that they may have been victims of physical or sexual abuse at a young age and this made me want to work in more depth with these women and to build a picture of their lives through interviews and photographs. I also wanted to find out the reasons women are put into prison and whether they are, as research such as the Corston report suggests, put into prison for crimes that are less ‘serious’ than men, and for relatively longer sentences. Quite a few of the women I have spoken to were first time offenders and this surprised me. There are other women who reoffended and ended up returning to prison time and again, going out to hostels having managed to get help with de-toxing from street drugs in prison then returning to the same town and almost straight away being able to buy drugs. Some women have lost their homes and their children while they were inside as well as their self-respect and with the stigma of a prison sentence – which does not make getting a job and rebuilding their lives any easier. I interviewed 21 women in the prison: I did not ask specific questions but wanted to be able to listen to what they wanted to tell me, sometimes interjecting, or checking out whether some of my pre-conceived ideas about prisons and their inhabitants were true! I spoke to women who had been convicted of murder, manslaughter, child-abuse, shoplifting, fraud and breaking bail conditions and women who were going to be deported back to a country they had not lived in for many years. What they all had in common was their generosity in talking to me, sharing personal information and giving opinions from their very varied life experiences.
To hear the voice of some of the women I interviewed visit: The Bigger Picture, Interviews with women at HMP Peterborough by Kay Goodridge | Mixcloud
I do not want to idealise or make these women out to be saints. They are ordinary people who know the difference between right and wrong and who have expressed their regret at making mistakes that have changed the trajectory of their lives forever. Some of the women I interviewed found that being in prison became a positive change in their lives – especially 3 of the women I spoke to who had been convicted of murder or manslaughter and who had started off as angry and uncooperative but through time and support from family and the prison system had been able to thrive on some level and regain their self-respect. For others, the boredom and isolation added to their sense of abandonment and loss. I have edited the interviews into a 45 minute sound-pied that reflects some of the issues that were and probably still are uppermost in the women’s minds.