What draws us to an object or to collect old things?
As part of Project Object, in her exhibition Memento, Becky Adams uses many of her own special objects in the gallery space and is using the gallery’s theme of overhead projectors to show old photographs of her own family and drawings of her Grandfather’s tools. One of the images she is showing however is of an unknown woman with a child sitting very formally in front of Victorian bathing huts. Whilst installing the show, Becky talked to us about why she may have been drawn to this image and by extension what it is in any object or image that attracts us to it. What part of our own psyche are we ‘projecting’ onto the object to which we are drawn?
Becky Adams is a collector of stories; they become an integral part of her life and are ingrained into the making of her work through a sophisticated use of stitch, vintage fabric and antique ephemera. Her work is a recollection of past experience and contemplates themes of memory, souvenir and the preservation of what could otherwise be lost. Connections are made between text, textile, stitch and narrative thread.
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| Becky Adams - Memento installation |
In the spirit of Project Object, Becky has been contemplating the challenge of the white space of the gallery, a quite different experience to her own working practice which is about the minute, the curious, the intimate and the cherished. She has brought with her a patchwork quilt which records her travels through the fabrics obtained or purchased in different locations, she will be sewing the fabric she has found in Carmarthen town into the quilt and inviting visitors to join in with the idea.
A tiny pair of children’s red shoes have also taken up temporary residence in the gallery – Becky’s own first pair of shoes - they have often featured in her work as an image. They remind us of Becky’s own story, and the little scuffs on the toes are the physical embodiment of her encounters and adventures; they remind us to value the little things of our lives and our own unique history.
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| Becky Adams |
