Layers of Memory

This is the 3rd major piece in a series of work on the effects of dementia. I began this series as a response to the diagnosis of vascular dementia on my father, a fisherman. This was the first time I had worked consistently on one theme and with one process: paper lamination and represented a considerable development in my practice. The piece is about the layers of memory that we all have and that at any one time some memories are closer to the surface and clearer than others, and this can have quite an effect on our identity, and that of people who we share memories with. The core of my father's identity remained until his death, but the detail got gradually more murky and unclear as his memory regressed, and this work shows this. It also represents the beginning of my use of rust as a metaphor for memory erosion and there is a layer of rust underpinning the whole quilt.
This quilt was accepted into Quilt National 2013.