Photography: Still & Moving Image
Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) - Many Hands
This film was made at workshops designed to help process trauma & displayed as an interactive installation for viewers to make their own contribution in situ.
Note: It is recommended to listen to this film on headphones to experience the ASMR quality the sound layers have.
Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) - Many Hands by Laura Noble
Two workshops were conducted as part of the project Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) by Laura Noble, culminating in an exhibition that included multiple disciplines including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, photography, collage and this film. 'Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) - Many Hands' is one of the outcomes of the two workshop sessions.
Unwrapping the meaning of Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) presents itself as a visible mending for both artist and viewer. During the exhibition audiences were invited to participate by drawing things they wish to process, begin to let go of, and heal from, before crushing and throwing their drawing into a semi-circle arena in front of the film projection. These works formed an audience mirroring the film through action, sound and process. We do not see the final works of those on film. Instead, we are invited to make our own.
The purpose of the project was to harness memories and reminders of trauma, to then be transformed into hypnotic artworks as a way to begin to process them. Working with families engaged with the charity Nova New Opportunities, as part of their Family Programme a group of women & then a group children aged 8-12 years old participated. At each workshop they produced their own abstract artwork. The adult group made collages and the children's finished pieces were drawings.
Through a technique that she developed in 2020, Noble utilises the anonymity of abstraction and making in a safe space to allow those at the workshop to draw from their own experiences and memories without fear, allowing for complete openness and honesty, with no subject off limits. Participants were invited to draw things they wished to change, forget or heal from and then crush their drawing on camera.
Following this they then made artworks using a picture of their crushed drawing as a guide. Fusing still life and abstraction - using personal past and present narratives - disempowers and fractures the most difficult subjects to turn negatives into positives.
By intentionally obscuring the narrative, hiding the meanings of subjects in the folds of drawings, serve several purposes. They do not serve as a trigger to past trauma. They present a method of processing it.
The children were quick and keen to draw, whilst adults were less so. Interestingly, the adult group were keen to crush their drawings and the children were more cautious. The film reveals the tentative and expressive nature of dismantling and reconstructing memory to transform difficult thoughts and memories into beautiful art.
The catharsis of the action is extremely important through audience participation and interaction. Due to the accessible nature of the technique, it is inclusive and easy to share with friends and family. Noble’s hope for Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) is to share it far and wide to encourage many more people to begin to process trauma.
See the finished artworks by the Womens group here: https://rb.gy/wgslv
See the finished artworks by the Children's group here: https://rb.gy/ucf1s
Gather 2023
Gather
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of women drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma, next transforming them into beautiful collaged artworks.
Squeeze 2023
Squeeze
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of women drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma. They are then transformed into beautiful collaged artworks.
Bracket 2023
Bracket
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of women drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma. This image shows the release once their drawing has been crushed, the hands bracketing the moment in between their palms. They are then transformed into beautiful collaged artworks.
To see the finished artworks click here.
Prepare 2023
Prepare
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of children drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma. This image shows the preparation & pause before the crush. The children found this part harder to do than the adults. They are then transformed into beautiful abstract artworks. This abstraction is a new concept & they were quick to embrace it.
Rimple 2023
Rimple
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of children drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma. This image shows the beginnings of the crush as delete fingers draws the paper between their hands. The children found this part harder to do than the adults. This participant loved the abstraction result so much she did two.
Simple is an Old English word for hrympel which means to fold, crush or crease.
Scrunch 2023
Scrunch
2023
Pigment Print on Canson Platine
Series: Anamnesis Unbroken (Au)
Taken during the Au workshop in partnering with Nova New Opportunities as part of the project, a group of children drew & crushed their drawings. This part of the Au method is essential to mark the pivotal moment between remembering difficult memories & trauma. Crushing the drawing is both brave & exciting as the drawing is transformed into a new artwork, framed & taken home.
All these actions can be seen in the video at the top of this page.
To see the finished artworks click on this link.
First Crush
Made as part of Anamnesis Unbroken (Au) project, these photographs of crushed trauma drawings abstract the images they contain.
Each work is titled with II to imply it is referencing another work. For example Subu II, is the first stage of of Subu - a sculpture made from a double-sided printed version of this photograph which is crushed & shaped a second time before applying gold leaf & being placed in a bell jar. This deconstruction of a deconstruction belies the circular nature of time which resides throughout the project. Memories are rendered in pen, ink & watercolour & pencil crayon. Each is photographed immediately after it is crushed at the moment when the memory is still being focused upon by the artist.
Titles: Subu II, Calamus II, Avon II, Bud II - Pigment print on Canson Platine
Letting Go of Stilled Life
Made with participants at Wellbeing Trauma Workshops using the AU Method each drawing (with permission) is photographed once crushed. Letting Go of Stilled Life series depicts the release of a trauma after its rendering. This still life is literally slowed down as the power of the trauma, memory or event the draftsperson has created is distorted & disempowered by the action by its author. Reducing its contents to a ball of paper ready to be disposed of it is literally ‘let go’. It’s contents may not have fully disappeared from the psyche, yet the new image it creates transforms negative thoughts into a positive aesthetic.
All works are pigment prints on Canson Platine / Editon of 5 + 2AP’s.
Everyday Imposition
This ongoing series of photographs featuring imposing phallic interruptions & reminders of historic masculine abuses of power & control are pictured alongside counterpoints of yonic influence. Each has a beauty of its own, with a tongue in cheek inference throughout. The battle is to achieve an equal balance of both. They are simply titled & numbered Y1, Y2, Y3 etc…for Yonic, or P1, P2, P3,….for Phallic, or YP1, YP2, …if both are present in the image. All works are pigment prints on Canson Platine / Editon of 5 + 2AP’s.
Crushing Trauma
2020
Video
Series: Crushing Trauma
This film is a companion piece to the painting The Purple Room objects connected to a specific traumatic event were itemised, drawn, painted onto soft paper & crushed in the hand. The act of crushing the depictions distorts the images eliminating the power they once held. The painting which follows transforms them into the positive realm of recovery & release.
Gesture of Hope
Gesture of Hope
2020
Pigment Print
Series: Crushing Trauma
Gesture of Hope
Holding On
2020
Pigment Print
Series: Crushing Trauma
Keeper of the Hearth
Keeper of the Hearth
2017
Unique Polaroid taken with SX-70
Featured in the book & exhibition as part of a worldwide project by artist Odette England: Keeper of the Hearth / Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph . England asked artists & writers to respond to a photograph that Roland Barthes’ reflects upon in his seminal work Camera Lucida without illustrating it. The picture he speaks of is of his mother as a child in a winter garden.
This work is featured in the book & exhibition at Houston Centre for Photography celebrating the 40th anniversary of Barthes’ classic in 2020.
The work depicts a slowly melting block of ice containing leaves & branches from trees near to the artists home in the morning sun.