‘Change’ By Helen Ingram

Art print on paper. 09/04/2014

                Helen Ingram has made a memorable account of the events that occurred in her life on March 2011. The written text demonstrates following themes of pregnancy, C-section and epilepsy. The artwork demonstrates the personal experiences and social issues that surrounded her at the time. In the first part (I) deals with how one self should conform, that we all should have a memory to be relative to the perfect self. She portrays the unpredictable nature of the mind and how we think it will always function normally. Helen demonstrates that memory being changed is not unique, but a tragic loss and a loss of self.

                Helen suggest there is already suggestion of a forgetful nature of not remembering mornings. That we as people like to keep things perfect to to ideal form as much as possible.  In part two (II) the text goes to suggest that the pregnancy itself was perfect, and that the body started to collapse, as the womb fails to give birth leading to a C-section. It goes to highlight the nerve wrecking experience by ‘Head beats to hearts drum.’ She then goes on to suggest the body function has changed as the womb in now empty and the last line highlights themes of birth, parenthood and motherhood.

                Part three (III) demonstrates a conscious and unconscious state of having no account of who oneself is or where they are. Helen also gives an account of seizures describing them as jerks and  out of control body movements. It highlights the contrast of normal to an unrecognisable state. That present state is frightening, surreal and  highlights how some fits can leave the person not knowing what happened, and being disillusioned, confused and in a panic.

                The next part (IV) goes to show how the body is trying to recover and how inner self is sad, hurt and lost by the realities of the new condition and being apart from the family. Part four suggests a state of being in denial, of how can this be and this wasn’t meant to happen.  The final part (V) is more joyful as relationships are connected again and that the condition is under control, so the memory can start to put pieces back together again.

                The structure of the piece of work uses rhyme where the body is failing to work and non-rhyme where the body has gained full control. The poem is displayed in five parts arranged in columns likea newspaper or comics. Throughout the poem Helen has used a reparative line of ‘Memory fade’ which is present in all parts other than (V) as it then changes to ‘Memory ignited.’

                The artistic style  and influence reminds us of pop art with its bold colours contrasting against one another with strong outlines and colourful block fills. The layout despite being laid out in columns, our eyes are drawn to (III) not purely due to visual alone, it would seem the artist wanted the viewer to focus on this part more as it is where the state of the mind and its memories are at its peak and worst state.

In conclusion Helen demonstrates that memory is precious and can be easily altered or taken away completely. That our mind can go out of control and lose all sense of reality. Helen takes us through a series of emotions that will capture your eyes. Helen questions the idea of good and bad memory. how can you preset it or label it, a memory afterall is just a recollection of a point in time. Helen combines poetry and elements of pop art to create a thought provoking piece. It leaves the viewer asking are we less our selfs if we lose our memories or more unique? Is love the only real thing we need to feel whole?

 

 

A poetry text version of this can be viewed on

www.marsocial.com