Memory and History in Art
In his discussion about reality and illusion, Alan Watts, a well known astronomer and philosopher from the 20th century, argued how the sun is light to the eyes; therefore, if there are no eyes the sun gives no light, and if there are no nerves there is no heat, and if there are no muscles there can be no weight.”[1] The same thing happens with life: if there is no memory of past experiences or history, there can be no life. What I’m trying to say is that in order for us to create and move forward we need to first understand who we are and where we come from. We cannot create if we don’t know what we’re creating. Every creation starts with an idea, and every idea starts with an inspiration or muse.
Earlier today my art history professor asked the class; how do memory and history intertwine in recent art? For as long as humans have existed, art has served as a visual record of events, either from the past or present time of the artist. In life, and in general, who we are and what we do or create is based upon past experiences and lived moments that have helped shape and mold decisions that one makes at the present time. Dr. Oliver Sacks stated, in one of his many essays about memory and its systems for the New York Review, that memory allows us to assimilate what we read, what we are told, what others say and think and write and paint, as intensely and richly as if they were primary experiences. It allows us to see and hear with other eyes and ears, to enter into other minds, to assimilate the knowledge of art, science and religions, to enter into and contribute to the common consciousness or the general commonwealth of knowledge. Sacks characterizes memory as dialogic and state that it arises not only from direct experience, but also from the intercourse of many minds.[2]
An artist whose work relates to Sacks’ concept of memories and history is the Japanese conceptual photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Known for his careful attention to light and shadow, he deeply enjoys the exploration of the memory and the representation of its preservation. Sugimoto’s photographic work is influenced by the aesthetic and surrealist techniques of the Dada movement. His concepts and subjects are mostly places like old movie theaters, classic opera houses, and museums, which he then combines with his long exposure shots to create sinister-feeling scenes with unnatural lighting. Since the mid 1970s, Sugimoto has used photography to investigate how visual representation interprets and distills history. He achieves this by photographing subjects that reimagine or replicate moments from the distant past. The Getty Museum described on his short bio how Sugimoto critiques the medium of photography’s presumed capacity to portray history with accuracy.
One of Sugimoto’s latest projects, “Polarized Colors,” consists of fifty miniature framed Polaroid images carefully placed around a gallery wall, arranged in a single horizontal line. These pieces are inspired by Newton’s 18th century analysis of optics and the discovery that natural light is made up of a spectrum of seven colors.
Another one of his most recent projects is the “Lightning Fields” series, in which he explores time in milliseconds and doesn’t use a camera at all. He produced these images by applying an electrical charge directly onto the film using a 400,000-volt Van de Graaff generator. The outcome consists on amazing images which are reminiscent of magical plant life. Sugimoto’s concept behind these photographs was to capture the scientific discoveries of Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday, and William Fox Talbot, the father of calotype photography.
In all of these projects, Sugimoto clearly shows that memory can be represented in art. Memory serves as an additional part of the narrative of these photographs. In addition to telling a story with his works, Sugimoto also illustrates how the memory of something is a story itself, just as Sacks stated that it is an accumulation of the history of our collective consciousness.
