I began to explore the connection between photography and memory through analogue photographic techniques during a recent project with patients suffering from memory loss, and I want to continue to develop this, whilst focussing particularly on memory of place, and how this can be affected in diverse ways. I am fascinated by how we remember place, how others recollections of that place can reinforce or contradict our own memories, the difference between what has been passed down to us in stories, and what a genuine memory might be, how age and distance from a location can distort our memory. Using photographs and collage, I have begun exploring how people recall significant memories; for example by juxtaposing fully focussed images of a scene, with an altered or incomplete image of the same scene, and I would like to continue this exploration with a view to completing a new body of work which describes how we remember and forget. This is a major development in my work, and I have sought out opportunities to practice and gain
new skills, gaining an LCP award and the Fathom Award at Four Corners, London, where I learnt how to use techniques in the darkroom to describe how we remember; I think that building on these processes will be a compelling way to explore these ideas. I will potentially be using images of brain scans, story-telling, photographic and moving images in this project.
I am keen to develop these ideas in an environmentally conscious way through employing early photographic techniques, I will be exploring collaging with found images combined with alternative photographic processes such as hand coloured cyanotypes and printing on glass. I would like to work on larger scale images and install them using specially constructed 3 dimensional framing devices, perhaps referencing early photographic viewing.
Since graduating from an M.A. at CSM in 2013, I have often worked site specifically, constructing installations in different buildings and situations, and this opportunity would allow me to develop work that could have more flexible outcomes. It would also give me the opportunity to broaden my use of materials in installation, and I am particularly interested in working with ideas of framing and presenting the work in new ways. Working towards an exhibition would be an ideal approach for me, and allow me to focus on producing new work that would push boundaries in my practice.
If possible, I would like to involve communities in Darlington to be part of the project through a workshop where we would experiment with collage and other ways to manipulate their own images. If a physical workshop is not possible, I would organise other ways to share and talk about memories through participants images, such as an online or postal workshop and sharing. I think this would not only give me a wealth of imagery to work with, but would also connect my work with the history, geography, people and places of the area, encouraging visitors and dialogue around the work.
Note: my video links are password protected, please see details here:
https://vimeo.com/video/1029978265 password trellis
https://vimeo.com/438561070 password heath
I work across several disciplines, including still and moving image, installation and collage, to explore our relationship with our surroundings and how we see and experience our environment. My work is often based in the documentary of place, exploring themes of memory, history, nostalgia, and the boundaries between the real and imagined. My practice is research-based, and frequently made in response to sites of cultural, historic and natural significance. I work with historic buildings, and in response to natural locations, and have produced a body of work which connects with natural and material culture, past and present. My work has been commissioned and supported by grants and awards, and exhibited nationally and internationally. I have participated in workshops, residencies, talks and events. Recent projects include a collaboration with Tom Miller, Wellcome-funded clinician scientist, whose clinical work centres on autoimmune encephalitis especially where it interacts with problems of memory and thinking, and his patients. The project gives patients the voice to describe what their internal experience of memory loss is like, using story-telling, still, and moving image, to capture, in a meaningful way, the first-person experience of having memory loss. During a recent residency at Abney Park in London, I worked with the volunteers at the cemetery to get behind the scenes to explore the idea of life amongst the dead, in particular the natural world and wildlife making their homes amidst this high Gothic Victoriana, and the people involved in the care of these living elements, such as the gardeners. A matter of Life and Death reflects themes of death and renewal, not only in the original purpose of the park as a burial place, but also in the changing of the seasons, the life of the natural world, and the contemporary use of the park as a place to walk and enjoy nature.
Exhibitions include Human Traces at Flowers Gallery, New York, Clepsydra at Birmingham University, Waterfall and Border Country at De La Warr Pavillion, and Imagine, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venice Biennale 2019. I am the winner of the 2015 RBS Sculpture Shock Award and the 2018 Flickering Stone Award Australia.
2013 Central Saint Martins M.A. Fine Art , Distinction
1987 Slade School of Art B.A. Honours Fine Art, 2.1
2023 Fathom Award
2022 LCN Award
2020 a-n Bursary award winner
2018 Winner of Flickering Stone, Hidden Award, Aus
2015 Sculpture Shock Winner RBS, in the Subterranean category
2022-present Member of Lux Critical forum
Continuing group crit and studio visits with artists previously in residence at Florence Trust.
2023-24 UCL Trellis Arbor Collaboration
2015 Border Country exhibition of collages at De La Warr Pavillion
2014 Waterfall, Dear Serge, De La Warr Pavilion
2023-24 UCL Trellis Arbor Collaboration
This collaboration resulted in art work which is now part of the UCL collection.
http://sculptureshock.rbs.org.uk/blog/sweet-thames-run-softly-till-i-end-my-song
http://www.lynndennison.com/video-installations#4-Imagine_Florence_Trust_Installation
2021-22 Abney park Residency, London
2018 Endelienta Residency
2017/18 Florence Trust Resident, London
2016/17 Artist in Residence, Research and Cultural Collections, Birmingham University
2016/21 Residency and Exhibition at The Lookout, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, with Tai Shan Schierenberg
2016 When Breath Becomes Air, Crypt Gallery Residency with Gen Doy, experimenting with work made with an A.N Bursary.
Email: lynn.dennison@hotmail.com
Address: 15b Hampstead Lane, London, UK, N6 4JP, GB
