Shona Illingworth: Lesions in the Landscape

Lesions in the Landscape is a major new three-channel video and multi-channel sound installation by Danish-Scottish artist Shona Illingworth. The work examines the complex individual and societal impact of amnesia, a condition in which the capacity to retrieve and form memory is lost and the past is effectively erased. 

This video installation and the accompanying 'Amnesia Museum' project reflect on the experiences of Claire, a woman living with amnesia, drawing parallels with the depopulated island of St Kilda, a remote archipelago located west of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in the North Atlantic.

Working in collaboration with neuropsychologists specialising in amnesia, Illingworth explores the psychology of memory and the relationship between our interior selves and the outside world.

Lesions in the Landscape is presented alongside two earlier works from Illingworth. The Watch Man is a study of an elderly watch maker haunted by memories of his military service, and Walking on Letters looks closely at a prison inmate who has spent extended periods of time in prison – often in solitary confinement.

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This project is the culmination of a partnership between UNSW’s National Institute for Experimental Arts, the UK’s Wellcome Trust, and Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT). Illingworth is artist-in-residence at UNSW Art & Design.

Shona Illingworth, Lesions in the Landscape 2015. Installation view, UNSW Galleries 2016. Photograph: Silversalt Photography

 

 

Shona Illingworth, (2.16); (2.44); (2.56); (2.57); (3.09); (3.13); (3.14); (3.16); (3.22); (3.31); (3.42); (3.44); (4.08); (4.14); (4.42); (4.45); and (4.52) 2015 . Installation view, 'Lesions in the Landscape', UNSW Galleries, 2016. Photograph: Silversalt Photography