[Lauren Craig] We think of legacies as a will, a conversation, an absence, a silence, a monograph, catalogues, abundance, leaflets. We try to ask the questions: Why do we document? Who is it that will be here to know? Who are the gatekeepers? Who are the knowledge-givers? Who amongst us are the way-finders? How can we document and keep things going? How do we want to? What is it that we need?
[Rita Keegan] You produce the work, take some responsibility. So, you need to go through your work. Figure out what you want to keep. Because I’ve also had enough friends that I’ve had to go through their stuff. You can’t trust your family to know that little piece of paper is important. I did an exhibition about memory. I guess I include a lot of smells and spices and things in my work. Because those spices are so evocative. And, you know, it’s like you’re eating with your memory, and there’s times that I’ll go shopping and I won’t even realise I’m homesick, but my groceries will look like my mother’s. You know, so there’s ways of doing things that can represent who you are and where you’ve been. Even if you don’t have the visual piece. So, I suggest you tap into the essence.
You know, the thing about technology, it has always promised so much and delivered so little. You know, we’ve dated people like that. Amen. But that’s what technology does. You hope...it was going to be the paperless office! It was going to be everything! You know, it’s not. You still need that piece of paper. I think you need to find a way not to rely on it. And also accept the fact that it will betray you.
[Lauren Craig] You might not be able to future-proof, but you can future-truth. And what I mean by that is, You can allow that intuition to guide you, that whatever it is you want to conserve is important because, who is to know? But if there is something within you that says to save it, to keep it, I think it’s enough to fill that absence.
[Rita Keegan] Turn it into art! That’s what we do. That’s why we’re here. You know, and somebody else’s interpretation of it is not your problem.
[Lauren Craig] We perform the acts of giving up as if the past could disappear. And we can just paint the future in the way that we see it and the things that we need. But we are active in making that. And without permission needed, we continue to weave what it is that we need to go. Building on the blocks of what it is we’ve saved, not knowing why. That ticket, that bus ticket. How do we make it all speak? We experiment in the obsolete, old tapes, obsessed with materials. We can make this happen. As we gather, we gather, together, intimate. We are loved. And we gather our materials. Loving them, preserving them, conserving them and caring. We make it available, because we want to be remembered. We want these moments to be as precious as they are. Or maybe it’s about something we’re not. Who is it that’s missing? What is it that’s missing? But we gather. And in this gathering, we continue to bring things together.
