I made this image a long time ago on art foundation, so, circa 1990.

Its starting point was a photograph of my first day at school, wearing my red plastic frame shades and a new grey felt blazer, which had a special pen-shaped pocket inside the front lapel.

I could hardly contain my happiness when I found the pen-shaped pocket.

I am standing in front of my Mum who has a hand on each of my shoulders and is smiling.

 

 

I photocopied the image and enlarged it a number of times so as to create an upscaling effect of myself with Mum, radiating out from the centre.

The effect reminds me of Russian dolls.

If you zoom back in to the centre of the image it looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stuck the separate images on a strip of thick white cartridge paper.

I used too much glue, I think and as the image has been rolled up for some years, it retains the shape of its rolledness and looks like this on the wall now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rephotographed it the other day and when I zoom into the smallest image of my head I am surprised to see that it looks rather skull-like, my shades looking like holes, as if the image has aged and gone beyond death, like Dorian Gray’s portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had forgotten about this blue and gold companion-piece I made at the same time starting with the same basic image.

I can’t remember how I made this but I like the quote across the top, the source of which is now lost to me.

In myth things lose the memory that they were once made

A quick google search tells me that it’s from Barthes’ ‘Mythologies’.