Memory Block
September 2006
23cm x 15,5cm x 5cm

Description
A solid block of woollen squares, cut out of shrunken knitwear, felted in the washing machine, glued together, pressed, the size and feel of a small brick.

Themes. Comments and Storylines
Out of such bricks a dwelling could be built, it would be silent, muffled, warm with the faint scent of wool. A cell made from memory blocks, a refuge or a prison?

Encountering memory blocks is when it happens always a hindrance, a nuisance, interrupting the flow of ideas, disrupting movement, paralysing, enforcing stillness, provoking anxiety, even panic. Only in retrospect are the memory blocks remembered as protective, part of a shelter which offers a resting place from the relentless demands to generate and process original ideas, be they in text or object.

The pressure to maintain a steady flow of creativity comes from within, an urge almost, a driving force, a necessity. The body signals when it is time for a break, when the movement needs to rest and gather new forces, when the veils of tiredness surrounding body and mind need to be yielded to.

The memory blocks – made up from discarded garments - carry their own stories of places and people. These are lost stories, unknown memories, but still with the capacity, it seems, to both block and support the flow of mine.