Isobel Bentley
My work is deeply influenced by my relationship with my memory. Within my final project this year, I wanted to depict the fragile, subjective nature of memory, focusing on abstraction, light, movement and blur to create a dream-like, fairytale-esque world that felt immersive and ethereal, like you could fall into it. I wanted to create images that felt like cinematic, short stories, or moments in time, where you begin to imagine what happened before or after the image. I wanted the project to feel surreal and strange, but beautiful and sensitive too. As someone who experiences synesthesia, I wanted to try to show the feelings that come along with this merging of senses and how this experience can interact with memory and emotion.
As my project evolved, it became about my experience with reality as a whole, and I tried to mimic the way I see through the images, creating snapshots that looked like a glance into sunlight, a movement in your peripheral vision, a vague memory of a strange dream, or a view blurred by an eyelash. I became fascinated with space and how intertwined it is with identity, time and memory, shooting self-portraits in abandoned spaces or spaces where buildings once stood. I placed myself into this abstract, light-filled, confusing world where time felt layered, as if I were a character exploring it. As I reached the end of my project, I began to tie it together into short, visual stories. Each collection of images gathered together into film-like sequences that depicted my thoughts on memory.Â
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