In this post-truth era of intentional misinformation ….I’ve been having a little ponder over ‘memory truth’, and how each persons memory of a situation or object is filtered through the lens of personal experience. Therefore, the truth of a situation is arbitrary, and perspective dependant. Obviously that is different when compared to the vile fake-fact/ intentional misinformation antics so popular in politics and in business these days. However, the idea of letting go of the truth of a memory as a way of connecting with Mum when her dementia progresses, is an interesting coping mechanism to explore….so I conducted a little play experiment.
The Exercise:
- Take one donated rock collection (from Mum a couple of years ago)
- Try to remember where they came from
- Mum – writes the outcome on said rocks (flexible with the facts)
- Rachael, films the process, engraves out the words and paints them gold
Mum writes place names on rocks from travels to Israel (for religious pilgrimages) and NZ
Questioning: What is precious?
Is it a stone pilfered from a beach while travelling? Is it, the transportation back in time through the tactile memory of an object? Is it the time a mother and daughter spent together creating an evolved and lasting memory while stretching truths?
Memory? obviously precious, but…..
As memories fade and morph with time and illness, are they of less value?
Result: With this little experiment, memory of the initial locations was irrelevant. Sure, some where known, but there was still so much richness to be found in the stories the objects evoked (I have no idea how true any of them were) and in the joint fabrication of origin myths as we played with the memory.
We had such a lovely afternoon – it didn’t cost a penny but it was golden.
Engraving Set-up
At the Bench