Whispers of a Place No Longer Ours (2024) has impressively captured the perception that a place known from our childhood has become blurred once returning. It is connected to us, yet also feels as though there is no connection. Within the solitude of understanding this place – the atmosphere of it has captured the memories and warped them into a liminal space. The corridor with arched ceilings seems to run on and on forever into a path that repeats. It pulls us into it, trying to remember the space and how it was and compare it to now, but this is now an impossibility, so it goes on infinitely as it has now changed as you search the past.
The form of the painting is evident; however, the spectral feeling that emerges from this structure makes it feel as though it loses its form as it dissipates from memory. The structure looks like it could be a skeletal structure – implying that the memory is in the past and cannot be regained- it has decayed in our minds. The loss of the form as it goes further solidifies this idea that memories degrade over time and become less distinctive and thus more emotional rather than with detail.
The monochromatic black (though with a tint of brown) and white palette within the painting enhance this memory and dreamlike feel of the painting. It appears as though it’s an old photograph snapshot of a memory that is eroding to time, and thus reinforcing the detachment of the present from the past. The viewer thus has been invited to walk through this space and memory to attempt to regain an idea of what it was like, but to no avail.