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Kieran Wilson

Kieran Wilson’s work over the past three years has examined and explored the theme of memory. In particular, this year his work has closely reviewed the way that we as a society use archival documents, such as old family photographs and letters, as an aid to memory. Inspired by the works of Gerhard Richter and Aby Warburg (who both created works using found archival imagery), and the writings of Roland Barthes and Siegfried Kracauer, Wilson has endeavoured to create artworks which both sit alongside these artists’ and critics’ work, but also challenges their beliefs and tests them against the standards of the 21st Century. Wilson’s latest piece, A Tangible Memory (2021), is a culmination of the past three year’s research and exploration and aims to touch upon many of the themes suggested by Kracauer, Barthes, Warburg, and Richter.

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Lots of black and white photographs are scattered over the top of the wooden desk, amongst pages of coffee-stained paper and bulldog-clips. Two photographs, one of a man holding a baby and one of two men and a woman holding a baby, are in the foreground. The Cello-tape transfers can be seen hanging on the wall behind the desk.

Tangible Memory

Installation detail. Wilson’s work took a lot of inspiration from Gerhard Richter’s Atlas (1962-2013), in which Richter collated archival images (such as family photographs and magazine cuttings). Much like Richter’s work, Wilson’s piece explores the way these objects help us remember, or sometimes even forget.

Birds-eye view of black and white, and sepia tone photographs which are scattered over the top of the desk. Underneath them are a few pages of coffee-stained paper. The photographs on the table are: two images of young children, one that shows two images of the same man in the style of a photobooth roll of images, one of a mother and father sat with their baby on a table, and one of

Tangible Memory

Birds-eye view of black and white, and sepia tone photographs which are scattered over the top of the desk. Underneath them are a few pages of coffee-stained paper. The photographs on the table are: two images of young children, one that shows two images of the same man in the style of a photobooth roll of images, one of a mother and father sat with their baby on a table, and one of a baby in a pram, which has a bulldog clip attached to the top of it.

Close up of the seven long, thin cello tape transfers, which show fragments of various images that appear on the table. One of them is in focus which shows a fragmented image of a young girl smiling at the camera.

Tangible Memory

These cello-tape transfers were created by laying strips of cello tape over photocopied photographs, and then placing them in water to remove the paper. The result is a very ephemeral remnant of the original image, conjuring the idea of how memory fades over time, but still a piece remains.

Wide shot of the desk installation with 7 cello-tape transfers hanging on the wall behind the desk. The top of the wooden desk is scattered with black and white photographs and coffee-stained paper.

Tangible Memory

Installation view

Three black and white photographs of a young boy holding a baby, a dog, and one of a boy next to a baby in a pram lay scattered across coffee stained paper and photocopied images of old handwritten letters. There are also two loose bulldog clips lying on top of the letters. The letters in this piece were deliberately chose to be photocopied as a representation of another kind of memory – perhaps a more second-hand memory, passed down from generation to generation.

Tangible Memory

Installation detail