Dialogue on Small Memories began with the discovery of a box of old slides. The process of scanning and bringing these images back to life became a game of discovery. Looking out from their familiar settings - the people in the photos insisted on their importance. They reinforce their existence and the system of values and relationships that constituted their world.

Society is avidly recording all aspects of its existence with greater accuracy and speed than ever. Making keepsakes, faster than we can review them - our lives are overtaken by the possibilities of process. We imagine time as a continuity of minutes, days, and years, but memory is not so linear - an ever changing sum of recorded moments create both the content and context of our internal dialogue. The mementos we keep with us, the sites and sounds we surround ourselves with, are an attempt to control our sense of self - they are hands from the past reaching forward to make themselves felt, and our own hands reaching back to deny the limits of mortality.

Dialogue on Small Memories

Dialogue on small memories with sound installation Union Libre II by Michael Oesterle 100 small paintings, 13 cm x 13 cm each, acrylic and paste on wood Installed on 2 floors of Salle Pierre Mercure, Montreal, 2003

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