Patches of Time

Patches of Time explores how memory is performed through photographic reconstruction, sound and the material traces of historical sites. Drawing on Sankofa — the movement of returning to the past in order to reimagine the present — the project considers how fragments of history can be recovered, altered and recontextualised through artistic practice. The project asks: how can photographic memory and Sankofa become ways of reimagining and preserving histories? The work emerged from a personal encounter with memory, historical sites and fragments of the past, and developed into a series of photographic and audio-visual works that consider how memories persist, erode and transform over time.

The research is conducted through the process of making. Photographs are deliberately subjected to water, tearing, fragmentation and reconstruction, transforming the image into a physical site where destruction and remembering take place. These fragments are then reassembled, sometimes as puzzles rebuilt from memory without reference to the original image, while recordings of natural and found sounds are layered with the photographs to create an immersive audio-visual experience. Through this process of destruction, reconstruction, improvisation and play, Patches of Time investigates how images mediate memory and how the act of making can itself become a way of knowing.