Can you trust your childhood memories?
Wait till your father gets home, collage and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Monde Monde Artist, 2016
“Wait till your father gets home!” is one of the most terrifying sounds any child can hear and it evokes strong memories of our childhood.
Powerful memories can be triggered by the simplest things – prickles in the lawn, the smell of dagwood dogs at the show, floaties at the swimming pool. In my new exhibition coming up at M16 Artspace, I question whether our memories are real or concocted in the tangled-web of our consciousness.
Here’s an excerpt from my media release, I’d love to know what you think. How reliable are your memories as a kid? Do you and your siblings have different perspectives on things that happened to you as kids?
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“As children we see every day things in extraordinary, disproportionate ways. This same distortion can be seen in how we remember our childhood experiences. Silly, crazy things stick in our minds and live with us all our lives. What I question is whether these memories are true?” says Monde Monde.
“There’s no rational narrative running through our childhood memories, the idea of a shark under our bed is a real as dad lurching at us with a wooden spoon,” says Monde Monde, “our imagined fears are often as frightening as immediate threats.”
The exhibition It’s for your own good, opening on Thursday 26 May, replays the soundtrack of our childhood with each work titled with parents warnings like Don’t Go Near The Water, The Geese Won’t Hurt You and Hold Still, This Will Sting a Bit.
The mixed media artworks are made of bright acrylic colours layered with collage from magazines.
“After years working in advertising in Sydney, London and New York, I get a perverse pleasure in tearing up old magazine ads. It’s like I’m destroying my old life to create a new one,” says Monde Monde.
It’s For Your Own Good by Monde Monde
Opening 6pm Thursday 26 May
Exhibition runs 26 May – 12 June
M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith ACT 2603
02 6295 9438
mondemonde.com
Instagram: @mondeartist
Watch out for the bindii patch, collage and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 2016, by Monde Monde Artist
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