Interpretations and the creation of narrative

I've been reading "Brain Landscape: The Coexistence of Neuroscience and Architecture" by John Paul Eberhard, in particular the chapter on 'Memorials, Sacred Places and Memory'.  It gives an interesting view on how we experience and respond to emotive space, which I feel relates directly to the responses I've had to my sculptural casts.  According to Eberhard we first experience 'primary' emotions resulting in uncontrollable physical reactions.  The 'secondary' emotion we experience shortly afterwards is a result of our "...cognitive interaction with the object that has produced the primary emotion."

Applied to reactions to my casted sculptures, Eberhard's ideas suggest that cognition of the shoes as personal objects play a vital role in provoking the emotional reactions.  The association gives the objects a human connection, during which the history of the object becomes directly associated with the assumption of a human one.  The shoes and casts have inadvertently been assigned an emotional narrative by undergoing the casting process.


Exploring narrative through painting and location photography...
Studies of heel and shoe casts using bleach, tissue, charcoal & ink on brown paper:

I photographed the casts in outdoor and domestic settings.  Leaving space in the composition above the casts seemed most successful in creating the visual narrative that the owner was absent.  With this absence in mind, the casts took on a certain stillness as the viewer is invited to contemplate the contrast between the shoes as animated objects in use and inanimate casts of their former selves.

Cast and destroyed welly

Heel cast on steps

Destroyed shoe and cast on street