Ian Kimmerly

Mediated Memories, 2010

This series of paintings was inspired by pixilated footage from home videos 
taken during my childhood.  It seemed an interesting challenge to transform 
the experience of watching these videos into the medium of paint, given its 
traditions and material nature.  My aim was to give the paint itself a voice 
and say something about the fleeting nature of the moments these videos 
depict and also comment on the disappearing concept of childhood in our 
culture.  The materiality of paint presents an image but also an experience, 
an atmosphere beyond its subject.

The title Mediated Memories is an ode to Jose van Dijck’s book Mediated
Memories in the Digital Age, which explores the relation between memory, 
artifacts and practices of remembering and how these relationships are 
changing.  Van Dijck discusses how and why we create mediated items 
for later reminiscence.  I find this question central to the complex connection 
between mind, technology and culture.  Especially as we move from analog 
to digital forms, the examining of habits and attempts of remembrance 
becomes more relevant.  What is the motivation behind the flood of digital 
snapshots, messages and videos?  Is it an attempt to preserve the past or 
subconsciously design the future?

While family photos and videos can be seen as suspensions of time, these 
paintings by contrast depict the constantly changing and drifting nature of 
everyday experiences.  Time is fluid, even in the age of digital objects.  The 
era and its innovations lead me to wonder whether digital documentation 
changes our remembrance of lived experiences.  The malleability of memory 
runs counter to the idea of an absolute experience or interpretation of events 
and speaks to the underlying temporal qualities of existence.