Memory

Memories relate to the past. Some artists make work about their childhood, others make work about a particular person, place or event they remember.

Artists such as Lubaina Himid and Christian Boltanski address a more general history of the past that is part of our collective memory.

How memory functions and selective memory is the theme Emma Kay explores in her work. In The Bible from Memory she tries to remember and recreate the contents of the bible.

Artists’ treatment of their memories often have a dream-like quality suggesting the idea of the memory as having faded or being not as real as the present. Rachel Whiteread’s casts of now demolished buildings, have a melancholy quality. They appear as ghosts of their original structures.

• Tracey Emin
  The Perfect Place to Grow 2001
  © Tracey Emin
• Louise Bourgeois
  Man, Keys, Phone, Clock 1994
  © Louise Bourgeois
• Man Ray
  Indestructible Object 1922-3
  © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2002
• Susan Hiller
  Monument 1980-1
  © Susan Hiller
• Lubaina Himid
  Between the Two my Heart is Balanced 1991
  © Lubaina Himid
• Christian Boltanski
  The Reserve of Dead Swiss 1990
  © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2002
• Emma Kay
  The Bible from Memory 1997
  © Emma Kay
• Paul Nash
  Pillar and Moon 1932-42
  © Tate
• Rachel Whiteread
  Untitled (Stairs) 2001
  © Rachel Whiteread
• Paula Rego
  The Dance 1988
  © Paula Rego
• Paula Rego
  Nanny, Small Bears and Bogeyman 1982
  © Paula Rego
• Cornelia Parker
  Thirty Pieces of Silver 1988-9
  © Cornelia Parker
• Miroslaw Balka
  50 x 60 x 38 1998
  © Miroslaw Balka
• Veronica Ryan
  Relics in the Pillow of Dreams 1985
  © Veronica Ryan