Alexandra Davies
Tabula Rasa
A collection of personal and found family photographs of siblings dressed in identical outfits form the core of this body of work. Through found imagery and creative writing it explores themes of identity, memory and absence within the family history which is constructed through the family album. In venturing to recall memories from these photographs there is an overlap of fiction which seeks to complete the gaps in the narrative. A deliberate containment of the stories into the same physical area as the photographs highlights the adjustment of memory to fit the visual document which hence reinforces the family history. The memory-text's combine elements of truth and fiction which seek to question the nature of memory. The construction of identity is also explored as being not only dependant upon family life (i.e. upbringing) but also as a product of the family album, in other words, that which is selected to be remembered.
