Mairéad Lambert, LSAD : Image Transfers..,,

I have had no Internet in the flat all week so I've felt totally disconnected from the rest of the world. I've been looking at trying to translate my ideas of human trace but without relying so entirely on the figure and movement. So last week I had a little think about how I leave my imprint on this world etc. and I thought of the accumulation of things we take from or leave in the spaces we pass through. Like bus stubs, concert tickets, shopping receipts, plastic bags, food wrappers, letters , postcards, wrappers, photographs, footprints, hair, DNA, warmth, butt spaces, fingerprints , memories, smells etc.....There are loads of little pieces of physical evidence of humans and the mark they leave on a space. For example , last night I was on a bus and noticed scrunched up bus tickets on the ground. There was a newspaper lying open on the chair in front of me, its owner gone but somehow you knew he had sat there, however temporarily, occupying that space. There was also little packets of sugar thrown around and sticky finger-prints on the window.

The bus held very little importance to me and I doubt many people would see it as a special place for them . So while human traces were very evident, they were not super exciting to me. This week I've been focusing more on the spaces that are important to me , my home, holiday venues etc. As much as I left my trace on them , they have imprinted on me, as memories and have impacted my life. I have been trying to marry these ideas this week through image transfers. I use photos from places very important to me and transfer them (using acrylic gloss gel) onto keepsakes and souvenirs and evidences of my trace, like tickets, receipts and even shopping bags! Old wallpaper from home has also featured in these works. I think there is something really sad about wallpaper, it's easily ignored and forgotten about. It's just a faint, hardly-noticed part of a given space.....just like the human traces I'm trying to convey. So that's why I'm using old flowery, gaudy bits of wallpaper that has been sitting around for ages with these transfers ! It's a very fun process because there is a real element of unknown about how successful the transfers will be . So that's been my week...I've nearly made my fingertips raw from the rubbings but i hope it'll be worth it (once I'm happy with at least some of them !!)