top of page

MEMORY PALACE

2017-2027

YEAR 1 / 2017

'Memory Palace' is a contemporary multi-disciplinary, time-based project by Sim Luttin that explores the significance of capturing moments and handmaking objects when we live in a complex, globalised time.

Mass production and the ubiquitous uploading of images creates endless clutter and visual noise in the physical and digital world. This project is a conscious intervention that aims to quietly pause, connect, document, and reflect ordinary daily moments. By doing so, Sim will imbue personal meaning into the images and objects, tracing time and revealing aspects of the human condition. The exploration will result in ten yearlong series' of images that will inform the creation of ten collections of handmade objects. The final presentation will culminate in idiosyncratic and tangible 'memory palaces' that span one decade of one person's lived moments in time. 

MOMENTARILY HERE

1 JANUARY - 31 DECEMBER 2017

 

I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy.

- Charles Baudelaire

Momentarily Here' is a yearlong photography & art jewellery project. A selection of new work from this exploration was presented in a two-person show titled Keepsake with painter Kirrily Hammond at Bundoora Homestead. The exhibition was featured as part of the Radiant Pavilion exhibition program in Melbourne in August 2017.

PIECE A DAY TIME-BASED PROJECTS

In 2008 Sim began time-based investigations that attempt to find meaning in the everyday.

 

The first project, The Temporary Nature of Things, 2008 idealistically looked for beauty in the everyday, distilling daily observations into 366 jewellery pieces and artist books.

The second, These Moments Existed, 2013 explored ideas of ambivalence and melancholy, by taking 365 digital photos that inspired a collection of wood and paper contemporary jewellery, which was ambiguous and/or ephemeral 

The third, It's Always Darkest Just Before Dawn, 2015 was a contemporary multidisciplinary exhibition that explored the significance of handmade objects at a time when people were engrossed in digital culture and mass-produced products. It explored the creation of authentic representations, starting with digital images, photos and video documentation of Sim's surroundings that informed the creation of contemporary art jewellery. 

The latest iteration, Momentarily Here, 2017 continues Sim's search for meaning in everyday moments that she captures on her camera phone. Her observations don't attempt to capture the perfect moment in a day. On the contrary, given the chaos in the world, this daily habit is an effort to pause, connect and reflect—even for the briefest moment. Without this gesture, most of the moments would go unnoticed and would be lost to time. They are not important signifiers that define one day from another, so much as they are the moment she reconnects with the present and takes note of her surrounds. They are one person's path through life, over one year. In the end, what remains is one version of Sim's lived life; significant or not, recorded on her camera phone, then on social media, and meticulously titled, dated, and archived in folders on her computer before transforming them into printed photographs and jewellery.

We live in a highly mediated society where the online world is arguably replacing a more authentic, tactile one. We constantly upload photos and amass ubiquitous objects to validate our existence and create memories of ideal experiences. We live in the past and create unrealistic expectations for our future, leaving us in a general state of ambivalence and melancholy. 

- Sim Luttin, 2015

Images (top to bottom): Moment #9: Apollo Bay (35. 4 FEB 17)Moment #5 Backyard view (4. 4 JAN 17)Moment #7: Getty (48. 17 FEB 17)Moment #6: Venice beach (47. 16 FEB 17)Moment #3: Magpie (44. 13 FEB 17); all 2017 and all sterling silver, annodised aluminium, glass. Courtesy the artist and Pieces of Eight, Melbourne.

2017 RESEARCH IMAGES

PHOTO A DAY IMAGES - ONE IMAGE EACH DAY OF EACH MONTH IN 2017. NUMBERED, DATED, TITLED AND RECORDED ON INSTAGRAM AND ON THIS WEBSITE. 

JANUARY: 1-31 2017

FEBRUARY: 1-28 2017

MARCH: 1-31 2017

APRIL: 1-30 2017

MAY: 1-31 2017

JUNE: 1-30 2017

JULY: 1-31 2017

AUGUST: 1-31 2017

SEPTEMBER: 1-30 2017

OCTOBER: 1-31 2017

NOVEMBER: 1-30 2017