Who remembers Wayne (2005)

"This work started as a component in a body of work in which I was exploring using time-based video as a way of creating a portrait of a person from the memory of others. It grew from a curiosity to see if a person’s identity could be re-created from fragments of other peoples’ recollections. It was important that no one knew what question they were about to be asked – the responses had to be spontaneous and unrehearsed.

Over a long weekend and unannounced, I visited old friends armed with my video camera and a piece of white paper which I unfolded and pinned on the wall behind them. I asked everyone the same question - "What do you remember about Wayne?" The disclaimer is that Wayne was my ex-husband, and no-one had seen him for over 15 years.

How they spoke, the body language they employed, their expressions, hesitations, and sometimes laughter – all these things became as important as what they actually said. During the editing process, I found myself honing in on these nuances and the gaps – those interstitial spaces that are nonetheless loaded with meaning. Not unexpectedly, I also faced my own crisis – through the final editing process, I became acutely aware that, in a serendipitous moment of role reversal, I now had control over his identity and was deeply implicit in how to resolve this work.

I pondered this deeply."