Pori Art Museum, Finland, 2003
The exhibition called Mnemonic is a study of the nature of memory and remembrance. It is also a comment on the scientific claim that the human mind is not capable of having memories from early childhood – referred to as childhood amnesia – stating that our earliest memories are fabrications. The title of the exhibition, Mnemonic, is a term for a memory aid. Mnemonics are based on the principle that the human mind more easily remembers data attached to spatial, personal, or otherwise meaningful information. The verbal or visual mnemonics must have some connection to a person’s existing significant associations and images.
The exhibition space at Pori Art Museum was dominated by a large panel made of white sequins – round plastic discs – that were constantly flickering in a current made by an electrical fan. The wall was like a tabula rasa; an empty surface, which in spite of its emptiness produced a flow of constantly changing patterns. The movement of the wall could be compared with the surface of water, ripples in a pool onto which the audience could project their own personal mnemonics.
