The Lost Gloves 2007-8
Christine Porter, Lismore 2008
the carelessness of exile, 2007
If gloves speak of home; those happy, well-matched families of fashion or protection – then lost gloves speak of that home’s loss: the state of not belonging experienced by the exiled and the state of missing them experienced by those left behind. This work is about the permanent results of the random, almost careless moment – like the accidental death of a family member, or their defection to a new life in a land beyond imagined reality – the sort of experience that renders a single, lost, glove forever homeless.
the artwork
A series of acrylic paintings, 21 x 27 cm on board, the subject being images of the “lost” gloves Christine “found” on her travels. The titles describe the place the original gloves were found.
L-R (Stripy glove) in a lay-by on the A52, between Ashbourne and Derby, Mon 21st May,6pm
The Thames River, Lambeth Bridge, London, Thurs 12th April, 3pm
Portknockie, Banffshire, Sat 7th April, 3:30pm
Castle rd, Kintore, Aberdeen, Sun 8th April, 6:45pm
Dundas st, Edinburgh, Wed 28th Mar, 4:50pm
Whitfield rd, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Fri 20th Apr, 1:30pm
Electric Avenue, Brixton Markets, Fri 13th April, 4pm
Lumsden, Aberdeen, Wed 4th April, 11:30 am. sold
the narrative of incomplete assimilation, 2008
I visited the UK generations after my ancestors had left, but there were places, especially in Scotland, that felt instantly familiar. “How long are you home for?” the neighbours there had asked. “How long would I need to be gone, and not belong?” I thought. I saw mirrored back at me my Scot-pale skin, eyes and hair: I heard stories of adventurers, convicts and farmers. The more I read about the people who had come before me the more I wondered: “am I me, or am I merely the sum of all my pasts?” This work is about how emigrant memory is more than its emigration stories (lost gloves, weather worn, still glove-like). Where emigration is not only about crossing the seas, but can equally be about a passage across the other River Styx-like situations that preclude return- like travel, accident or childbirth.
Christine Porter Lismore 2008
the artwork
Three cast bronze gloves , installed to represent the permanent ramifications of chance decisions, such as the decision to emigrate.
“not near related but related all the same” 2008
Frances Shekelton (nee Porter), from BallyJamesDuff in Ireland and Frances Ross Porter, my paternal great-grandmother, share a name and a birthplace – though a century apart. Frances and she were indeed cousins, Mrs Shekelton told us; “not near related” she said, “but related all the same”. In a place where names are a currency of belonging; we were welcomed – one hundred years ago Frances Porter wasn’t. Exiled for love (family legend tells) she settled in Lismore, but eventually became just a name, in a sentence, in a chapter, in a history of this area.
This work is about the impact of emigration on all of Australia’s history: each glove standing in for each person that I’m related to by blood or marriage in this area alone, describing the wealth of emigration narratives in each family, those stories hidden and those known. It’s been installed to block the view of the landscape, just as the pain of those exiled, whether by choice or mis-choice, obscures the beauty of the current landscape, just outside their window.
the artwork
A site specific installation, made for the McNaughton Gallery space at the Tweed Regional Gallery. The tall windows at the Tweed River Art Gallery look out over the beautiful Tweed Valley. They allow for slivers of the landscape to be a part of the installed artwork inside the gallery space. The installation of this work blocked that view except for the occasional tantalising shards of light that indicated there was more beyond the wall. This piece spoke of the jail-like melancholia experienced by the homesick.