The Landings Exhibition is in preparation, and there is a call for entries.
At the same time, I am continuing to explore the idea of ‘traces’ of the genocide, from the viewpoint of survivors, protagonists and observers / tourists. For Landings, we need to offer five words that sum up the entry. Some seem obvious, others less so. Here is my current list:
- Traces – the left behind, the aftermath, the details
- Hidden – the forgotten, the ignored, the papered-over
- Time – frozen, memory, history – yet unclear, contextual
- Implication – thought, gaze, study
- Suggestive – today, the future, repetition
I have been exploring ways to visualise this, in the first instance with still photographs. I shot some images on the also Cambodia trip, and will keep shooting. I was not totally convinced on the previous set, as some became touristic, voyeuristic. My tutors were perhaps even less impressed!
Just looking through some of the cyanotype work, and thinking how to both fool our expectations of the camera and challenge the expectations of the viewer, the idea of using negatives rather than positives springs to mind.
Negatives, as a representation of the hidden, which without developing or printing we literally cannot see.
Negatives, requiring thought, interpretation, study to extract meaning.
Negatives, of history.
I think this is worth exploring more, although I need to be very wary of wandering into the picturesque.
Of course such images would only be part of any final exhibition or installation .. but they could form a self-contained set for Landings.
