Student profile: Mari Skarp
Salt Books (2008)
I am seeking to represent the concept of fragility.
Through my exploration of this concept I wish to specifically address aspects of mental fragility. This idea pertains to memory loss and retention, neural disintegration, mental change and dysfunction, as well as mental distraction and reaction through actual physical sensibilities. It is my goal to have the viewer and the artwork be motivated by physical sensory reactions and deprivations such as touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight.
I address this topic in light of recent events that have occurred in my life over the last 2 years. My Grandmother, Lillian Henninger died in June 2006 of severe Alzheimer’s Disease. She lost all ability to speak and write more than two years before her death, which led to anxiety for both herself and our family. In 2007 I lost the man who I claimed to be my Grandfather, Donald “Trouble” Manchester. Trouble died from severe Alzheimer’s Disease as well, he became completely unable to recognize the family and friends that he had known and cared for much of his life. I watched both of these wonderful people decline, mentally and physically. My Grandmother’s mentality degraded more slowly while Trouble went downhill quick and lasted less than a year. I was most struck by the importance of things that were forgotten, why was it that my Grandmother could not remember my Mother’s name but would ask for her dog “Fuzzy” often? She had known the dog only a few years while she had birthed and raised my mother. Trouble could remember everything that was growing in every greenhouse that he owned, but he couldn’t remember to water the plants or turn the heat on at night so all the plants died from exposure. How does the mind select what is more pertinent to memory? Do we have any control in what we remember? Is there a way to retrieve the memory once it is lost? What is a memory once it is trasnversed into the mind? How is it translated, represented, formulated and retrieved? Most importantly, is there a way to stop, slow or even reverse the process of memory loss?
Losing memory tends to have a positive and negative ripple effect around those afflicted. I am interested in the power of this loss and also the connectivity and disconnectivity associated with it. I am also interested in the ways that sensory perception tie into this loss, specifically if the senses are affected by it. If one forgets that their favorite warm sweater is the white one in the closet, will they remember if they put it on and feel comfort? Will it cause a brief recollection or something more pertinent? When Trouble used to forget to turn the furnace on in the greenhouse he would get into his truck to go home and if he smelled diesel fuel he would instantly remember to go back and turn on the furnace. When he had springtime cold and couldn’t smell anything he didn’t remember once. If one fights to remember one thing will another memory be lost or diminished? If my Grandmother tried to remember all day that she had to dress nice for dinner later she would forget to eat lunch, take her pills, and take the dog outside. Is there a way to harness the positive and negative aspects of memory loss to allow for a peaceful existence? Even worse, if one cannot remember anything at all, are they at peace with themselves? Is memory loss a disease or does it become one of greater integrity when psychological ramifications begin to take hold of its victim?
I wish to answer these questions through utilization of materials that are fragile, to create visual and physical works of art which will activate the human senses. I wish to use materials that are tactile and will appeal to the sense of touch, materials that can be smelled and imagined as taste. I will use materials that are changing in physicality and chemical composition; materials that are rotting, melting, disintegrating, unraveling, becoming aged, brittle, delicate, worn away. By utilizing materials that are ever changing, like the human mind, I will create an experience that will be self gratifying in memory, and will be an experiment in itself in regards to memory retention.
