Phyl Payne

News

MY 'OBJECTS IN WAITING'

Identity is a recurring theme in my work and one which I explore through a variety of media. I was therefore intrigued when I discovered a box crammed full of anonymous photographs in an antiques shop. These photographs preserved a moment in time and represented somebody’s memories. But there was little to identify either the women in the photos or the photographer. So who are they? Without names, they appear stripped of their identity and I was struck with a desire to restore it to them. Alongside the photographs, there was a pile of old coins and when I discovered that a date on the back of a photograph matched a date on one of the coins it seemed serendipitous. How many palms had this coin crossed? And could the coin and photographs have history and memories in common?

I have no answers to these questions, but the possibility of creating answers by weaving fact with fiction and their history with my own was appealing.

I considered the possible options of creating a photo montage … a slide sequence … an installation … a collage … the possibilities seemed endless.

But time passed and the perfect marriage of content with form, never seemed to present itself. The photographs remain without identity, the coin without known history.

Now, these objects in waiting are exhibited as works of art themselves. They are no longer my problem but yours.

Phyl Payne