writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

Singing Letters: Telescopic, cast steel, metal tripod on wheels, metal film‐canister reel,
portable, polyurethane, megaphone. Maximum dims: h.207 x w.120 x d.120 cms
From the original collection, I selected eight letters that capture a range of key events and
experiences relating to the early days of my father’s emigration and arranged them in a narrative
sequence, for example: arrival, locative identity, keeping in touch with home, loneliness, seeking
work. Strategically, I switched gender to suggest that what we are now hearing is the invisible voice
of my mother or even myself as she/I read the letters to herself/myself. Through foregrounding the
female voice I wanted to give my mother a re‐imagined site of recognition in order to reinstate her
presence through the woman’s voice. This is an acknowledgement of her important role as ‘keeper of
the archive’ and perhaps compensates for the fact that all her (return) letters were lost.
The gender reversal also alludes to my subjective ‘insider position highlighting the role I assumed
as the interpreter of my father’s voice as it passed from generation to generation through the
archival artefacts. There is perhaps another interpretation which is that the voice could represent the
historical position of women, so often ignored and subsumed by patriarchal institutions, such as,
family, state and church institutions (prevalent in the culture under review, that is, Ireland 1950‐
1966). Another artistic gesture occurs when I transfer the letters from the intimate, interiority of the
private act of reading by projecting it as song into the public space of the gallery. Deploying the
transformational process of sculptural assemblage I was ab e to draw on the intrinsic qualities of a
range of found and fabricated elements, such as: a megaphone, a large‐scale, camera tripod, a
circular tin for preserving film reels, and a newly created soundtrack. These elements were selected
because of their association with various forms of transmission, which relates directly to the
enquiry’s concern to find new ways to transmit and encounter past experience.
I appropriated the image of a ‘Tannoy’ (PA) system for its links with authority, public‐address and
assembly in public spaces. Drawing on this technology was central to the piece and it is through the
megaphone that the sound track is amplified and projected into the (public) exhibition space. This
echoes the 19 th century philosopher and investigator of memory Maurice Halbwachs’ idea that
individual memories are constantly in dialogue and changing through contact with wider community
and social networks. 5 Conceptually, this work investigates the role of the voice in the context of both
collective memory and the ‘struggle for memory.’ Like many contemporary artists I was drawn to the
ephemeral quality of sound and the immediacy and emotional impact of singing as a form of ‘sound
memory.’ I believe sound can be mobilised to contribute to the circulation of memory outside of
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